Two Flashes of Yellow Book 1: To be a true Shinobi
by Siegfried01
Summary: The fourth war isn't going so well, Naruto's bijuu is extracted but he survives. While fighting Tobi he gets hit by Kamui, now who is this redheaded girl he meets and why does she look so familiar? AU/Time Travel Fic. Naruto x Kushina and Minato x Mikoto, but later. First fanfic so be gentle, eh? Constructive criticism is welcome. Rated for language. Will try to update fortnightly.
1. Table of Contents

**Disclaimer: **This will be the only one for this book. I do not, and will NEVER own Naruto. Kishimoto does. If I did then I would have not made Naruto an absolute idiot, among other things.

_**Two Flashes of Yellow**_

_**Book 1**_

_**To become a true shinobi**_

**Description: **While fighting Tobi, Naruto gets hit with Kamui and knoccked out. Upon waking up, he found himself in Hi no Kuni, but not the one he knew.

Why is the Sandaime still young (ish) and who are these strange children, a redhead with the hair of the extinct Uzumaki clan and a blonde that looks just like him. And more importantly, why is he 8?

* * *

Let's see...I'm truly surprised at how this story is turning out. I started out with it as an experiment for a friend and fellow writer: Flashrabbit99 who asked me to publish it here and...here I am. To be honest I'm astounded at how the story seems to just write itself, The first arc alone is 30k+ words...and I have quite a few, longer arcs prepared...this story will take a while, I can already see it, troublesome rabbit, why did I allow myself to get suckered into writing a story...now I can't abandon it and it's cutting into my lazy time...troublesome.

I also would like to say that, while I enjoy reviews, I am writing this story as much for the viewers as I am for myself, I really really want to see how it ends and the events that leads it there. Also, if you guys have any questions about the story or the logic in general please PM me or just review and point it out. It helps me to fix any plot holes and keeps me in touch with all of you troublesome people out there.

I will also post my responses to more important reviews, eg. plot holes, suggestions or answers to questions I myself have asked so others can see and hopefully have their questions answered too, even if it is troublesome.

OK. Enough with the note. It was trouble some to begin with but now it's just unbearable, I'll end it with a synopsis on the arcs and then go take a nap or go cloud-watching...maybe some chess would be nice...

* * *

**Book 1:**

**Arc 1:** Introduction Arc

**Arc 2: **Chunnin Exam Arc

**Arc 3: **Chunnin Days Arc

**Arc 4: **Training Arc

**Arc 5: **Shinobi War 3

**Arc 6: **Downfall of a legend

**Arc 7: **ANBU, this needs clarification. I will NOT be writing this arc, it's more of like the time period between book 1 and 2. There will be mentions of it in book 2 and some flashbacks but no actual chapters. Basically it's my excuse for not writing another troublesome arc and having to put in more effort than I already am.


	2. Prologue: A chanced arrangement

**A/N: This is my first fanfic, I'm writing this for the reading pleasure of a friend so I won't beg for reviews or follows. That being said, constructive criticism is welcome and I hope to get some advice considering that this is my first fanfic.**

"Rasengan"-normal speech

_'Rasengan'-_thoughts or flashback or words with innuendo

**Rasengan-** Jutsu, demon speech and thought, extremely angry person . /_cb20120126120221/naruto/images/1/13/Kushina_ – photo of young Kushina

-youngPhoto of a young Naruto

* * *

Prologue: A chanced arrangement

Where am I?

That was the first thing that registered in the young blonde's mind. Rapidly shaking his head to clear some of the dizziness from his mind, he looked around; spiky blond locks shaking as he did so, his features morphing into what can be described in a scowl; one that definitely did not fit his young and boyish features.

Standing, the boy rapidly swept his gaze around, taking in the details of the old forest he found himself in.

_'This is the forest in the outskirts of Hi no Kuni, but it looks…different somehow, almost…younger? But how can that be, I was fighting Tobi.'_

* * *

_=======================Flashback Start================_

_A blonde man stood in front of another figure, both were releasing enough Killer Intent(I'm calling it KI) to cause the other combatants to freeze, which, considering they were all Chunin and Jounin level shinobi, is quite an impressive feat. The blonde was ever so slightly shorter than the other, nonetheless he stood at around 192cm and the other stood only marginally taller._

_The blonde was dressed in an orange jumpsuit with his shoulder portion and sleeves black and a red spiral in the middle of his back, a black stripe also followed the zipper for his jacket and encompassed the bottom of his jacket in a ring. He also wore orange pants that ended around the middle of his calf; he also wore black shinobi sandals. Thankfully the orange as a dull rusty orange colour, unlike the bright "kill me now" orange he wore in his youth. He wore a headband which proudly showed the symbol for his village, Konohagakure no Sato, the village hidden in the leaves. Unfortunately it now looked like a crater hidden in the leaves._

_The second figure wore a blue battle kimono with white highlights, carried and enormous battle fan with two patterns of the Sharingan on it and wore a pale blue porcelain mask, also with the pattern for the Sharingan on it, this time the tomoe form the left and right eyeholes and the other in the middle of the forehead. In his right eye was the Sharingan, in his left, the Rinnegan._

_The blonde spoke first, "Tobi! This Tsuki no Me Keikaku (Eye of the Moon plan) of yours has gone on long enough!"_

_"Hehehe, unfortunately you can't stop me, Naruto-kun. I've already completed the Gedo Mazu, how you survived your Bijuu getting extracted is beyond me though. Bah, no matter, the Gedo Mazu is complete! You've failed."_

_"Not if you die here! __**Rasengan!**__"_

_"__**Kamui**__."_

_=================Flashback End====================_

* * *

_'Oh yeah, __**"Kamui"**__, he must've transported me somewhere else. But where and more importantly, WHEN? This place looks like the woods in Hi no Kumi, so I know roughly where but since it looks younger and lusher than I remember I must've gone back in time…argh it seems my memories are fading with the travel. I can't remember my childhood anymore, man that was fast. Hmm, I should probably head to Konoha. Best find out how far back I was sent.' _

With that, the young boy began trudging towards what he remembered, for now at least, was the direction of Konoha. While doing so, he checked the amount of equipment he had,

"Let's see, 5 shuriken, 2 kunai, 6 metres of ninja wire and no food. I also seem to be wearing some of my childhood clothes, blue shorts and a white shirt with a flame pattern on it and a sleeveless orange hoodie. Hmm that's certainly interesting. I must have aged backwards, but how much I wonder...well once I find some water I'll be able to see my reflection. Eh, speak of the devil; I hear the sound of a stream nearby."

* * *

The boy then ran off in the direction of the stream, paying no attention to the branches hungrily snagging his clothes. Suddenly, he burst out of the underbrush to see a babbling stream, its banks filled with gravel deposits, cutting a wide path through the thick, lush forests of Hi no Kumi. Surveying the landscape around him, the sun-kissed blonde found that downstream, he was on high ground apparently, the small stream led to a lake; and just beside the lake he could see the Village Hidden in the Leaves, at least he could see a shape that looked distinctly like the Hokage Monument and a circular shaped area it was in that, by right, should be the village.

Satisfied with his bearings, the boy then proceeded to wash up and drink in the stream, his bright blonde hair positively sparkling in the warm afternoon sun and his deep, cerulean blue eyes reflecting the light looked like two small blue suns. Satisfied with his current state of cleanliness, the boy looked in the water to see his reflection and nearly fell over. "Na-nani? Why do I look like I'm 8 or something? I mean I was expecting to be a few years younger but 8! I was 25 back in my old timeline!" The boy exclaimed, the incredulity showing in his voice.

"*sigh, well, no use crying over spilled milk. I'd better head over to Konoha quick, it's getting dark." The boy was just about to head off downstream when he heard a quiet noise behind him. Stopping, he turned around. _'What's that noise? Sounds…yeah…like someone's crying, I ought to go see what's going on.' _With that, he trotted over to where the sound was coming from, peeking through the underbrush. Despite knowing it was a person crying, the blonde really was not prepared for what he saw.

* * *

It was a girl, a rather beautiful one at that, huddled against a tree, weeping as she drew her knees into herself, her arms acting as restraints so her legs would not stretch outwards. But the most striking thing about her was her hair, it was flame-red and in the afternoon sun it looked as if her hair had caught fire or even was fire itself. She wore a beige sleeveless kimono that went down to mid-thigh and a fishnet shirt underneath that. She also wore a green obi around her waist and black shorts under her kimono. On her feet were the standard, navy blue, ninja sandals, she also wore black stockings that went to her lower thighs, leaving around and inch or so of skin visible.

* * *

The blonde slowly made his way over to her, making as little noise as possible so as to not distract her, as he drew closer he heard her mutter in between sobs, "They're gone…they're all gone."

Silently wondering what the girl was talking about but deciding not to ask as whomever "they" were, something horrible obviously happened to them and asking would more than likely send the girl teetering off the edge into hysterics, something she seemed to be extremely close to anyway. Totally at a loss for what to do, his comfort zone was blasting everything with a **Rasengan** for kami's sake! The boy stretched out his tiny hand, still somewhat pudgy with baby fat, and awkwardly rubbed the girl's back.

_'She's not malnourished, that means she hasn't been here long. So whatever happened to her was recent, makes sense since the trauma of it hasn't gone away. Then again it could just be something so powerful she hasn't forgotten yet, hmm, probably a combination of the two…she's really pretty though…ack! Baka! She's in trauma, what the hell am I doing?! Thinking about her looks at a time like this! Dammit Ero-Sennin, even in this timeline your making me a pervert!'_

* * *

The boy was forcefully interrupted from his reverie when he felt a weight push itself on him. Apparently the girl was so hysterical that she used a stranger as a teddy bear. As the hugged the boy, he softly made shushing noises and rubbed her back; attempting to ignore the voice of Jiraya in the back of his mind, a coping mechanism since the Great Sage's death, screaming about his research. Eventually, after some time and a soaked shirt the girl calmed down, well, enough to talk at least.

"A-Arigatou, I needed that."

"Hmm? No problem, I couldn't let just leave you there, crying by yourself, right? Besides, you're much prettier when you're not crying."

At his words the girl blushed so red she could be considered a tomato, despite the fact that the boy truly was not exaggerating. Now that she stopped crying, the boy could appreciate her beauty. In the now setting sun, her hair shone a brilliant shade of crimson, highlighting her delicate features, which were lightly boyish since her face still had not lost its baby fat but to the boy, it was cute. But the most stunning thing about her, to the boy at least, was her purple eyes. In the rapidly setting sun, her eyes shone with an unnatural light, making them look like two deep violet whirlpools. All in all she looked perfect to her admirer, who was still frozen on the spot, his jaw hanging open and his hand still half-extended.

* * *

_'Kaa-chan?! What the hell?! She looks as old as me! Well, at least I know when I am. Let's see…Kaa-chan and Tou-san were 25 when I was born, 5 years after the third world war which lasted 10 years…so, it's 2 years until the second war ends, the third hasn't started yet; and 17 years until I'm born. So I went back 32 years and aged 17 years backwards. How is that possible? Hmm, I remember Kakashi-sensei saying that __**Kamui **__transports the target to another place and time. Perhaps since I was affected by going backwards in time but I didn't age into oblivion since time passes differently in __**Kamui**__. THAT'S why I'm losing my memories, my mind thinks it is 8 years old, so it's erasing my memories up until that point. That means I'll forget my friends, my ninja skills will also be shot since my body thinks it's larger than it really is and my chakra control is likely shot to hell too. But I won't forget my moves and jutsu since it's engraved in muscle memory. But I'll forget everyone, Sasuke, Sakura, Lee, Neji, Tenten, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Shino, Kiba, Hinata, Konohamaru, Tsunade-baachan, Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, everyone.'_

Unbeknownst to the blonde, the girl was also staring at him. _'Wow, he's really handsome. Argh, baka! You barely know him! And besides, he probably won't want to hang out with someone like me. But he did comfort me just now.' _ As the girl continued to wage an internal war against herself, the boy was quickly engraving all of his important memories in his mind. _'I may forget you guys, but I'll never forget the lessons you taught me and the sacrifices you made for me.' _By that time, the girl had noticed the boy's stare.

* * *

"Um, excuse me, why are you staring at me?"

Once again jolted out of his thoughts, the boy looked at the girl once more and noticed the cute blush on her cheeks. _'Kaa-who?'_

"Eh hehe, sorry. I just noticed how beautiful you are, -ttebayo."

At that, the girl flushed an even deeper shade of red. Her face now the same shade of red as her hair.

The girl regarded the speaker. The boy had his back towards the setting sun, the warm orange light shining off his sun-kissed blonde hair and orange hoodie, making it seem as if he was on fire; which contrasted deeply with the vibrant sky blue pools that were his eyes. The girl felt that if she continued to stare at his eyes she would be consumed by them. Quickly averting her eyes she replied, her blush still present on her cheeks, "Arigatou, you don't look so bad yourself, dattebane." Now it was the boy's turn to blush a bright red. "I'm Kushina, Uzumaki Kushina." "Namikaze Naruto."

* * *

**A/N: Okay, prologue done. I realize that it's kinda short but I figured that that was a good as any place to end it. I hope that I didn't bore you all with my long-winded style of writing...^^" **

**Translations: Ero-Sennin: Pervy Sage**


	3. Chapter 1: Arrival to Konoha

**A/N: This chapter is longer, around 10k words or so, hence why I'm updating fortnightly, chapters this long need time to write. I'm posting it now because I had it pre-written and I figured I should let you guys read it to see if you like my writing style.**

**On another note, I need a beta-reader. PM me if you're interested ne?**

**Chapter 1: Arrival to Konohagakure no Sato and the Academy**

By this time, the sun had set. Its warm glow replaced by the cool shine of the moon as it climbed higher and higher in the night sky.

Naruto stood, brushed some dirt off his pants from sitting down and comforting Kushina and extended his hand to her which she gladly took.

"So, now that we know each other's names mind telling me why you were weeping and what you're doing out here alone, Kushina-san?"

Upon asking his question, Naruto noticed that Kushina's face fell at the mention of why she was crying and hardened when asked why she was alone. Quickly backpedalling in an attempt to fix the damage, Naruto quickly added, "If it's too upsetting you don't have to tell me, Kushina-san. I was just wondering."

* * *

Kushina's face immediately hardened for a moment before relaxing, when she looked up at Naruto, her eyes shone with determination despite the beginnings of tears that threatened to fall from the sides of her eyes.

"No, it's alright, Naruto-san. I'll tell you. Several days ago, my ninja village, Uzushiogakure no Sato, was attacked by the combined forces of Kumo and Iwa. My clan, the Uzumaki, they-they were all wiped out. All of them, except me, I'm the last one left. They attacked because word reached them that the previous Jinchurriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune was dying, my baa-chan, Mito Uzumaki. They attacked because Kumo wanted the Kyuubi and Iwa feared that Uzushiogakure would aid Konoha in the War. When they arrived, Mito-baachan had already sealed the Kyuubi into a new Jinchurriki, me. Once Kumo found out they wiped us out in an attempt to find the new Jinchurriki and Iwa was only too happy to help. I was supposed to be escorted to Konoha but we, my escorts and I, were intercepted and my escorts killed. I escaped in the battle but...I'm lost, and Konoha thinks I'm dead or captured, so they won't be looking for me."

* * *

By the time she finished her story, tears were falling freely from Kushina's cheeks. Naruto immediately wrapped her into another hug and whispered quietly in her ear, "Shh, Kushina-san. I'm here and I'll protect you, always. I won't let anyone hurt you, that's a promise of a lifetime." This of course, caused Kushina to weep even louder.

After a while, Kushina drifted off, the exhaustion of crying for so long for so hard finally catching up to her. Gently, Naruto picked her up bridal style and walked up one of the trees and set her in the corner of a branch, her back resting against the gnarled trunk. Silently thanking Kami that his chakra control did not suffer too much, Naruto silently made two Shadow Clones and sent one to gather firewood and the other to gather some food.

Satisfied with his clones, Naruto started to work on chakra control exercises while he waited. _'This is rather fortunate, since I have less chakra now my chakra control has actually improved, that's great but by the same token my more taxing jutsu are unusable now. Let's see how much I have to work with here…alright. I can make 10 shadow clones and maintain them for a day and that is with half my chakra. So that's 50 clones for battle for the same amount of chakra. Alright, so I can't use the Rasenshuriken without killing myself. Thankfully I managed to perfect it during the Fourth Shinobi War so I won't lose the use of my arm, especially since I don't have any advanced healing. Let's see what else I can do, ok I can use __**Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, Kawirimi no Jutsu, Henge no Jutsu, Fuuton: Daioppa, Fuuton: Kaze no Yaiba, Katon: Karyu Endan, Rasengan and Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu. **__Not bad for an eight year old I guess…oh my clones are back.'_ Seeing that the clones he dispatched had returned, Naruto dispelled it and got to work preparing the fire and gutting the fish the hunting clone had brought.

* * *

The smell of the cooking fish woke Kushina up from her slumber, startled that she was in a tree, she promptly fell out; right onto a tired blonde who was just walking over to wake her up.

"Itai…Kushina-san,"

"H-hai, Naruto-san?"

"Um, mind getting off? I mean, no offense, but you're kinda heavy."

"Ack, hai!"

With that, the embarrassed redhead quickly scrambled off Naruto, her face once again resembling a tomato once she realised that when she fell onto Naruto she fell in such a way that she landed straddling him with their faces nearly touching.

The two thoroughly embarrassed children quickly moved over to the fire Naruto had set up on one of the banks of the river next to the tree Kushina had been sleeping in. As they sat on the banks, eating the cooked fish in silence, Kushina noticed that Naruto had six identical lines on his cheeks, almost like whisker marks. That, coupled with his closed-eyed smile gave him the appearance of a fox kit.

* * *

Thinking deeply, she broke the silence, "Ne, Naruto-san, did you really mean what you said: that you would protect me?"

Looking up from his fish, Kushina saw his eyes now resembling two sapphire pools, shone with determination and another emotion she could not yet place.

When he answered, his voice was thick with emotion and steel, "Of course I did Kushina-san, you are my most precious person. _'Also the only one I have at the moment' _and I will always protect my precious people, even at the cost of my own life."

As he continued his tone softened into something resembling tenderness, something Kushina had not been addressed with by anyone other than her grandmother, "Do you think so little of me as to think I would go back on my word?"

If Kushina was expecting anything, his response was the farthest from it. As she replied her eyebrows furrowed in confusion and her head shook slightly as if trying to make sense of the blonde's statement, "but, we've barely met so why am I your most precious person? Besides, we don't know anything about each other personally. Heck I don't know about your past."

When she looked back to the blonde she noticed that his eyes were shadowed by his hair. Taking a deep breath to steel himself, Naruto looked back at Kushina who was shocked at what she saw, his normally happy eyes now showed an extreme amount of pain and sadness.

"It's…not a happy story."

"I don't care; we're in a war, Naruto-san. Not many people have a happy story."  
At her comment, Naruto cast his gaze back into the fire and so did not see the growing horror on his companion's face.

* * *

"Well, my name is Namikaze Naruto as you know; I was born in a small village here in Fire Country. I never knew my parents, I'm an orphan. In the village, I was always alone, not even the other orphans talked to me, nobody would sell me anything because they couldn't waste resources on "a lowly street urchin such as myself". So I had to steal for a living, because of that when I was caught I was thrown out of my orphanage and so I lived on the street, stealing everything I needed and eating out of the garbage. Eventually an old man found me; he took me in and told me he would teach me some ninja skills to protect myself. And for a few months, everything was alright, I had a caretaker, I was learning to defend myself and I had a home." His mouth set into a grim line as if he had swallowed something sour, Naruto continued, "But then they came, ninja. They totally destroyed my village and everyone in it; I survived only because the old man and I lived on the opposite side of the village that was attacked. The old man told me to run and that he would buy me some time so I fled. I wandered around for a few days and eventually found the stream and met you."

His story finished, Naruto grew silent. Worried for her new friend, Kushina attempted to read the emotions on his face, unfortunately his face was obscured by the shadows from the fire dancing across it. Moving closer to him, Kushina saw that his shoulders were shaking and tears had begun to fall. Quickly, she wrapped Naruto in a hug and allowed him to cry himself out.

After a while, Kushina noticed that Naruto had grown silent, thinking that he had fallen asleep, Kushina quietly whispered in his ear, "I'll always be here, Naruto-san, because you too are my most precious person." Immediately, Naruto showed he was indeed awake by hugging Kushina back and whispering to her, "Arigatou, Kushina-san. Remember, I promised to protect you, and I don't go back on my word; never."

* * *

Quietly pulling away, Naruto walked off to extinguish the smouldering embers of their fire. As he walked off, Naruto was deep in thought unaware that his train of thought ran parallel to Kushina's. _'I can't, I just can't love Kushina. She's my mother for Kami's sake, however in this timeline me meeting her has already messed things up. Either way she will fall in love with Tou-san anyway, maybe I can give a relationship with her a chance if I find out that she feels the same way for me. Maybe. Argh who am I kidding, she doesn't deserve me, I'm just a no-name orphan.'_

_'I-I can't love Naruto can I? I mean, we've only just met, besides he doesn't deserve me, I'm alone and the last of my clan. But if I find out that he feels the same, maybe this could work.'_

Returning, Naruto once more offered his hand to Kushina which she gladly took and together walked over to the tree Kushina was sleeping in climbed onto a high branch that overlooked the stream flowing into the lake near Konoha. Naruto removed his hoodie and sat down so he would be leaning on the trunk and pulled Kushina down to lie on him, invoking a deep blush from the poor girl and a chuckle from Naruto. "It's not funny!" Kushina remarked as she smacked his chest with an adorable pout on her face. Naruto simply chuckled again and draped his hoodie over Kushina.

The two drifted into a comfortable silence when Naruto suddenly began chuckling. "Eh, what's so funny?"

"Oh I was just thinking how funny it was that I'm sharing my sleeping spot with a girl I only just met," which of course earned him half-hearted smack to the chest and a, "Quiet you, Ero-Baka!" from Kushina.

* * *

Chuckling even more, Naruto continued, "But since we don't really know much about each other, how about we get to know one another better, ne? You know, likes, dislikes, dreams and so on. Here I'll start. My name is Namikaze Naruto, I like ramen and Kushina-san, and I dislike perverts, rapists and the 3 minutes it takes for instant ramen to cook, and my dream for the future would be to have the strength to protect my precious people and if I can, to have a family."

Blushing at the mention of her name, Kushina replied, "Alright, I'm Uzumaki Kushina, I like ramen, music and Naruto-san, I dislike perverts, rapists and people who think boys are better than girls, and my dream for the future would be to have a family."

Turning to face him, Kushina whispered, "Ne, Naruto-san?"

"Hmm?"

"You'll help me, right?"

"Of course I will Kushina-san, who would I be if I didn't help my precious people?"

"A baka?"

"…You're mean…"

The sound of Kushina's laughter filled the night sky as the two children fell asleep; the stars watching over them in their slumber.

* * *

The next morning, Naruto woke up to an embarrassing scene, apparently, during the night Kushina had draped herself onto him, in such a way that their legs were intertwined and she used his chest as a pillow. His jacket, thankfully, was still present on her.

But the most embarrassing thing was the fact that Kushina had fallen asleep with an utterly adorable smile and blush on her face. Totally unused to this, Naruto did what any man would do when he woke up to find a woman lying on him, he screamed like a girl. This, of course, violently woke Kushina who expressed her dissatisfaction with her pillow's loudness by punching him off the branch. Unfortunately, their legs were still intertwined and so Naruto pulled Kushina down with him.

Many birds took flight from the noise made that morning.

Several minutes of red faces and scrambling later, Naruto and Kushina headed out.

As they jumped through the trees parallel to the stream, Kushina expressed her concerns, "Ne, Naruto-san, how do you know which way we should be heading?" Without missing a beat, Naruto pointed to the steam on their left, "That stream leads to a lake around an hour from Konoha at the speed we're travelling at now. And the lake is 3 hours away. So we should arrive in Konoha by lunch, that is, if we don't stop."

After Naruto's explanation, the two lapsed into a comfortable silence until Kushina once again broke it by voicing her fatigue, "Naruto-san, I'm really tired. Can we take a break?" Naruto paused mid-jump and replied, "Well, if you truly cannot keep going, I suppose...there's only one thing for it." With that, Naruto dropped down below Kushina and rose again in such a way that he caught her on his shoulders mid-jump which promoted an "eep!" from her.

"Na-Naruto-san? What're you doing?"

"Eh? You said that you didn't have the stamina to keep going to I'll simply carry you. This way we'll be able to reach Konoha and relax in around two hours or so." Upon finishing, Naruto sped up and quickly made a beeline for the main gates of Konoha.

* * *

============2 hours later=====================

The Chunin guards at Konoha were, as usual, arguing about what they did to the Sandaime to make him put them on guard duty when a figure suddenly jumped down from the canopy in front of them. So, being the excellent and independent guards that they were, they immediately asked for the registration passes of the two children who obviously did not have any and one was nearly unconscious with exhaustion. The second responded to their stupidity via two knocks to the head, "Bakas! Someone is nearly unconscious with exhaustion in front of you and all you say is "Where are your registration IDs?" honestly!" The two poor harassed guards called for backup who immediately whacked them on the head as well, "Bakas! This is Uzumaki Kushina; you were given explicit orders to take her straight to the Hokage! You were even shown her photo! How in the world are you two even Chunin?!" The three nameless shinobi immediately bowed in shame to Kushina who was watching them with an ever-growing sweatdrop on her head.

"Um, I hate to break up this _lovely _conversation, but we really should see the Hokage." The three guards turned to Kushina who was emitting a sizeable amount of KI and sweatdropped, before the one originally called as backup nodded and escorted the two children to the Hokage, leaving the two gate guards to bicker on whose fault it was that they were scolded by their superior.

* * *

Knocking quietly on the door to the Hokage's office, his assistant spoke, "Hokage-sama, Uzumaki Kushina has arrived, however she is without escort and has another child with her."

The Hokage continued to gaze out across the village, his back to the door, "I see, bring them in."

"Hai, Hokage-sama; children, Hokage-sama will see you now," as the two children walked into the office, one supporting the other, the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato turned to face them. Whatever expression the two were expecting, the grandfatherly smile on his face as he spoke was definitely not it, "Why hello there, children. Kushina-chan, you're late and without your escort, what happened? And I don't believe I know your companion."

Seeing as Naruto was still huffing from carrying her in the forest, Kushina decided to answer for both of them, "Well you see, Hokage-sama, when Uzushiogakure was attacked, it was attacked before we had time to leave so we were followed, my escorts got into a battle with some Kumo nins and I chose that point to escape in the confusion but unfortunately, due to my lack of knowledge in the geography of Fire Country I got lost. I wandered around for a few hours before collapsing under a tree, the trauma of the loss of my clan finally catching up to me. That's when I met Naruto-san." Pausing, Kushina shot a grateful smile to her blonde companion who tiredly returned it, continuing she said, "He helped calm me down and gave me some food. I was tired so I fell asleep, the next day he found out that I was heading to Konoha and he decided to tag along."

The Hokage politely waited until she had finished her tale before questioning her companion, "What is your name, child?"

"Namikaze Naruto."

* * *

"Well then Naruto-kun, what were you doing wandering the forest?"

"Ninja attacked my village, my caretaker told me to run so that's what I did."

"Do you know who they were or why they attacked your village?"

"No, I only knew they were ninja because they used Doton jutsu."

"What was the name of your village?"

"I'm not too sure actually, it was a simple farming village."

"Ah, I see. Well then Naruto-kun, what do you intend to do now that you're in Konoha?"  
"Well, I intend to become a ninja like I understand Kushina-san wants to be."

"Oho, so you want to be a ninja, Kushina-chan? Well that can be arranged, anyway, Naruto-kun, do you have any pre-existing ninja training? Like do you know any jutsu?"

"Well I can walk on trees and water, I know **Kawirimi, Henge, Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu, Fuuton: Daioppa no Jutsu and Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.**"  
At the mention of the Kage Bunshin no jutsu, the Hokage's eyes narrowed, "Naruto-kun, those are some advanced jutsu, and the Kage Bunshin is a kinjutsu. Who taught you these jutsu?"  
Shrugging, Naruto replied, "My caretaker, he taught me the basics of being a Shinobi to protect myself. I figured he used to be a ninja too, but he never told me his name. I always just called him 'Old Man'."

* * *

Humming softly and stroking his beard, the Hokage replied, "Well, there are a number of retired Shinobi here in Fire Country so it's possible. So I guess that's alright. The two of you will report to the academy tomorrow morning at 9am, it's the building with the fire emblem behind the tower and if you get lost you can always just ask for directions. Naruto-kun, you should know, there is another Namikaze who will be attending the academy alongside you and Kushina-chan. His name is Namikaze Minato. Actually now that I think about it, you two could be siblings; after all you said you had a caretaker so I assume you never knew your parents, like Minato-kun who is an orphan. Also you bear great physical resemblance, why grow out your side bangs and take away your whisker marks and you would be near identical. Ah, forgive me, I'm rambling, I'm getting older faster than I thought. Anyway, off you go. You and Kushina will be sharing an apartment for now. A Chunin is waiting outside to show you to it."

As the two children walked out, sharing some banter about the sights and sounds of Konoha, Sarutobi took a deep puff on his pipe, _'So, is this what you meant about a "Red String of Fate" Mito-sama?_ _ Well from what I can see Naruto-kun will grow to be a fine young man, he has already mellowed Kushina-chan out. After all, she is nothing like those reports you sent me, then again that could be due to the loss of her clan, in that case Naruto-kun is still going to be a fine man anyway since he would've pulled her out of depression. Mm, I think my time here as Hokage may be drawing to a close. Now that there are such bright young individuals like Naruto-kun and Minato-kun.'_

* * *

Unaware of the old Hokage's musings, the two children followed their Chunin escort to their apartment. Their apartment opened to a comfortable living room with an attached kitchen, unfortunately there was only one bedroom meaning they would have to share a bed which was fine with them since Kushina would miss her pillow. Everything was fully furnished beforehand. Just before departing, the Chunin gave Kushina 600 ryo (No idea how much Japanese currency is works in terms of pricing, let's for now say 1 ryo=1 US dollar), saying that she did not trust Naruto to handle it which promoted an indignant, "Hey!" from said blonde and a giggle from Kushina. She also informed them that until they became Gennin they would receive 200 ryo a month for food purposes and that the cost of their bills was being handled by the Hokage before disappearing with a Konoha shunshin.

Once the Chunin left, Naruto turned to Kushina and asked, "Ne, Kushina-san, now that we're going to be living together, can I call you Kushina-chan?"

At his request, Kushina paused from examining the fridge and adopted a thoughtful look, "well, alright, but only if I can call you Naruto-kun –ttebane!"

Smiling, Naruto replied, "Ok, that seems fair enough. But what should we do now Kushina-chan? I mean we have the day to ourselves and it's not even noon yet."  
Turning to face him, Kushina gave a closed-eyed smile similar to Naruto's and said, "Shopping!"

"Eh-eh?! Why?"

"We don't have any food, clothes or soap, Naruto-kun! I don't know about you but I'm not going to wear this constantly. Besides, we need sleeping clothes. Now come one! I wanna buy a new set of clothes and have a shower!"

With that, she dragged the protesting blonde by the hoodie out the door and into street. And so, Kushina dragged Naruto around Konoha to buy food and soap. Naruto, being the male, was of course totally overladen with bags by the time they reached a clothing store.

* * *

As they walked in, they were spotted by the owners who were and elder married couple. While Kushina and the wife began picking out clothes, the husband shot Naruto a sympathetic glance and said, "Boy, you'll get used to it, now then, you've rested enough. Go pick out some clothes." Seeing Naruto's reluctance to move, he added, "Unless you wanna wait here? The girls will take another hour or so." Immediately Naruto shot up and strode with purpose into the male's section of the store.

One hour later, Naruto was waiting for Kushina with the old man who was assuring him that all women took this long and that he was glad that he worked in a clothing store so he was never dragged around. Shooting the owner a dirty glance, Naruto turned around to find Kushina standing in front of him with her new clothes. From what he could see, she seemed to have on a yellow vet with black flame patterns on its edges that went all the way to her thighs. Underneath she wore a standard fishnet shirt with a forest-green obi and navy blue shorts. She also wore brown shinobi sandals. Naruto, on the other hand, wore his sleeveless rusty-orange jacket. He traded his old white shirt for a sky-blue one that had the Konoha insignia on the upper-arm area of its sleeves. He wore two blue bands with orange edges around his wrists that went up to his elbows and a khaki three-quarter cargo pants with blue shinobi sandals. All in all, both of them wore something that changed their look slightly without completely re-designing them.

"Alright, children, that will be a total of 300 ryo for three sets of your clothing," the old woman said from behind the counter.

As Kushina handed her the money, she turned to Naruto and quietly said, "So we've spent 500 ryo, we still have 100 left over. What do we do with it?"

Thinking carefully about Kushina's remark, Naruto replied, "Well, we haven't gotten any shuriken or kunai yet. We could go buy those...or we could just save it just in case. What do you think?"

"Well, I think we should save it. Never know when you might need it right?"  
Nodding his head in agreement, Naruto agreed wholeheartedly.

As the two prepared to leave the store, Naruto once again overladen with bags, he even had one in his teeth! Kushina innocently asked, "Ne, Naruto-kun, why don't you use Kage Bunshin?"

For a few seconds Naruto showed no outward reaction before suddenly dropping the bags and exclaimed, "Eh?! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME SOONER-TTEBYO?!"

* * *

As the two children were walking back to their apartment, with several Kage Bunshin trailing behind them, and Naruto repeatedly smacking himself on the head, Kushina suddenly whirled around to face Naruto; only to realise that their noses were nearly touching. Fighting her embarrassment and rapidly rising blush, Kushina asked, "Ne, Naruto-kun? Will you teach me how to be a ninja? I mean, since you already know some taijutsu and ninjutsu."

Pausing from his self-punishment, Naruto adopted a thinking pose and hummed to himself for a second, "Hmm, well ok, I'll get the clones to bring the stuff back to the apartment and then we'll head to the park. Since I can't teach you any ninjutsu or taijutsu until your stamina, speed and chakra control are worked on we'll start on those first."  
Nodding in agreement, Kushina quickly accepted.

As they were walking to the park, she asked, "Why aren't we heading to a training ground? They're meant for this kind of stuff right?"

Without turning around Naruto held up two fingers and spoke, "Well, two reasons, one is that we're not shinobi yet and so we don't have access to them. Second...we don't know where any of them are in the first place," since he did not turn around to speak, he did not see Kushina nearly face fault at his second reason.

Several minutes later, they arrived at the park to see a few people walking around. Since the park was surrounded on three sides by trees, they opted to find a clearing in the trees to practice in quiet.

After a few minutes of combing, the found a moderate-sized clearing that offered solitude as well as an area large enough to train in most medium sized jutsu. Settling against a tree, Naruto instructed Kushina to run 20 laps around the field. As she ran, Naruto observed that she was fast for her age and had a lot of stamina, so much so that he kept increasing the number of laps until she reached 50 laps, even then she only looked moderately winded. Smiling, he proceeded to make Kushina do 50 push-ups and sit-ups before getting up and walking over to her, "Okay, we'll do this every day, increasing the number we do by five each time. Now then, onto chakra control training." Naruto then walked over to the tree and proceeded to walk straight up it without any obvious effort. As he reached the top and sat down on the branch, he asked, "Kushina-chan, you've unlocked your chakra right?" Receiving an affirmative, he continued, "Alright, this exercise is one of the basics of chakra control, to walk up the tree; you need to exert a constant flow of chakra from your feet. Little and you'll slip off, too much and the bark will cave in."

* * *

With that, he settled to observe Kushina and every once in a while, point out some things she did wrong. This continued until sunset when Kushina finally managed to make it up to Naruto 5 meters off the ground, by which time the tree was full of foot-shaped indents.

Satisfied, Naruto and Kushina headed home; all the while talking about her progress. When Naruto commented her stamina she replied that it was a side effect of being a Jinchurriki that she gained almost inhuman levels of chakra and stamina for her age. Mentally filling this away for later since he thought he was the only one who had that effect, Naruto then commented on her chakra control being extremely good and pouting, saying that it took him a week to do the tree exercise when she took a day.

She merely shook it off and said that her chakra control was always excellent and that her increased chakra pools affected it but not so much. When she inquired on his stamina and chakra levels, he said they compared to her own which shocked her greatly.

Arriving back at their apartment, Naruto offered that Kushina showered first while he fixed dinner which earned him a giggle and a kiss on the cheek which made him blush a shade of red that would put Kushina's hair colour to shame. After he cooked a simple dinner for them, Kushina reappeared wearing a white T-shirt that went down to mid-thigh. After eating, Naruto showered and came out in only his boxers which promoted a blush from his roommate.

Settling into bed, Naruto pulled the covers over them and Kushina immediately snuggled into him, using his chest as a pillow which caused no little amount of spluttering from the blonde. Seeing, Naruto's flushed and questioning expression, Kushina also blushed before snuggling back into his chest and replying softly, "You're warm, so it's like hugging a hot water bottle." Blushing terribly, Naruto wrapped his arm across Kushina and pulled her closer. Resting his chin onto her head, Naruto whispered, "Goodnight, Kushina-chan." Feeling her hold tighten as she replied, "'Night, Naruto-kun."

No more words were spoken as the two settled into a peaceful slumber, the ever-present stars watching them through their window.

* * *

Sunlight peeked through the half-closed windows of the bedroom. Kushina woke to the sound of two birds chirping outside their window; looking around, the noticed that she was still wrapped in Naruto's embrace, and he in hers. Smiling softly, she quietly whispered, "Ne, Naruto-kun, wake up. We need to eat and get ready for the academy." Naruto's response was to snuggle closer to her and murmur, "...don't wanna...wanna stay in bed."

Sighing at her companion's laziness, Kushina thought for a motivator for Naruto before a proverbial light bulb appeared above her head. "Naruto-kun if you get up now, we can go eat ramen."

A yellow flash appeared in front of her and she realised that not only had Naruto extracted himself from her grasp, he had done so undetected and in under a half a second. Gasping, she looked at the spot where he was previously, back to his current position, and back again. "H-How did you move so fast?!"

Shrugging, Naruto replied nonchalantly, "You said we'd have ramen for breakfast." Walking off, Naruto said over his shoulder, "Hurry up Kushina-chan! Ramen is waiting!" As he left, Kushina shook her head at Naruto's oh so obvious obsession with Ramen before getting up and grabbing one of her new outfits from her wardrobe next to the door.

Walking out, she could see the flashes of Naruto running the house in anticipation for his noodles. Shaking her head once again, Kushina walked into the bathroom and told Naruto to calm down.

Several minutes later, Kushina walked out of the bathroom to find two bowls of Ramen on the kitchen counter and a pathetically crying Naruto staring at them. Wondering what the fuss was all about, Kushina walked up behind Naruto before asking, "What's wrong Naruto-kun?"

Without turning around, Naruto replied with a pitiful voice, "T-The Ramen, it's mocking me with its goodness. But I can't eat it!"

Surprised, Kushina replied, "why not?" This time Naruto turned around to stare at her, "because, I'm waiting for you." Surprised at Naruto's thoughtfulness, Kushina replied, "Well, I'm here now so we can start." Immediately Naruto appeared in front of his bowl and began inhaling it. Sweatdropping, Kushina walked over to hers and began eating as well.

An hour later, Naruto and Kushina were standing outside a building with a red roof and a circular crest above the main door with the kanji for "Fire" on it painted in red. The walls were a plain shade of beige. Staring at it, Kushina asked Naruto nervously, "Ne, Naruto-kun, are you sure this is it?" Humming thoughtfully, Naruto replied in a confident tone, "Sure it is! Besides, even if it isn't we can just ask the people inside for directions to the right building!"

Nodding as they went in, Kushina said, "Well, that makes sense." Replying, Naruto said, "Of course it does, I said It."  
"Um, that doesn't mean very much Naruto-kun."

"Kushina-chan, you wound me."

"Oh hush up Naruto-kun, let's go find the receptionist."

* * *

At that, Kushina sped up to talk to the lady behind the counter who wore a warm smile, even though to Naruto her eyes said, "Kill me please, this job is so boring." Privately muttering about unfair redheads, Naruto walked up to the middle-aged woman and inquired on their class. Scanning something on her desk that Naruto was too short to see, she replied, "Of course dears, your class is on the first doorway in the corridor to your left, your instructor will give you a tour later but for now I'll tell you a brief summary. Behind you is the exit, to your left are the classrooms, and to your right is the exit to the courtyard and lunch area. This circular room is the front desk. Teacher's room and principals office is at the end of the left corridor. Simply go to your classroom, knock twice on the door and tell your teacher that you're the new students, he'll take it from there." Quickly thanking the receptionist, the two children hurried down the corridor and knocked twice on the door.

After a moment, the door was opened by a middle-aged man with greying black hair which he kept in a spikey pineapple-style ponytail. He wore the standard Chunin flak jacket and uniform. He also had a burn on the right side of his head and arm. Looking left and right for a moment before his eyes travelled downward to spot the two children. Squatting down, he asked, "what're you two doin'? Who're you anyways?" Naruto politely replied, "Good morning, sensei. We're Namikaze Naruto and Uzumaki Kushina."

The two names seemed to strike the instructor as familiar as he quickly motioned them in without another word. Motioning them to the front of the class, the instructor quickly introduced them, "Well class, these are your new fellow students, Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Naruto." At the mention of "Namikaze", a blonde kid seemed to snap to attention in the second row. He wore a pale-blue sweater with a single navy-blue stripe along the sleeves that was open at the chest to show a fishnet shirt. His pants were blocked by his chair. Naruto observed that both he and the kid had similar sky-blue eyes, facial structure, sun-kissed blonde hair and piercing gaze. The only difference between them, Naruto noted, was that he had whisker marks on his cheeks and the other blonde had two bangs of hair framing his face.

* * *

_'So, that's Tou-san eh? Old man third was right. Other than my whiskers and his bangs we're identical.'_ As Naruto observed the blonde, said blonde was also scrutinising him, _'So, this is the other Namikaze Hokage-sama told me about. Yeah, he's right. We do bear a striking resemblance, our eyes; hair and face are the same.'_

Quietly noting the staring competition between the two Namikaze, the instructor cleared his throat, bringing them out of their thoughts and said, "Well, while I go get your work, why don't the two of you go and find your seats and get to know your new classmates."

With that, he left. As soon as the door slid shut, murmurings immediately broke out around the class. As they headed to two free seats at the back road, Naruto noted some of the more striking faces, _'let's see...two Hyuuga, two Uchiha, an Aburame, an Inuzuka, and an Ino-Shika-Cho team; must be Hizashi and Hiashi, Fugaku-teme and Mikoto, Shibi, Tsume and Inoichi, Shikaku and Chouza. Interesting, it seems the Rookie 9 where almost carbon copies of our parents.'_

As they reached the back row, some of the other children were waiting for them with arrogant leers on their faces. Sighing internally, Naruto debated using his Katon Jutsu to make barbeque but decided against it, resigning to allow Kushina to pound some sense into them the old-fashioned way.

As soon as they reached the arrogant kids, they were bombarded with taunts and insults of a varying nature and intensity. It wasn't until one of them made a comment on Kushina's hair colour and round face that one of them snapped. Predictably, Kushina snapped first and tackled the closest bully down the stairs to the front of the classroom where she sat on him and began pounding him.

The other bullies forgot Naruto and raced down the stairs to assist their suffering comrade. As they did, Naruto sighed, muttered, "Troublesome." This gained him some stares, especially from Inoichi and Chouza and an approving expression from Shikaku. Sighing once more, Naruto lazily made his way down to where Kushina was whaling on the boys. Wincing when one of them took a shot to the forbidden place, Naruto grabbed the back of her Obi and bodily dragged her away from the unconscious bullies and back to their seat.

Settling into their seats, Kushina noticed the varying stares from the class, an approving one from Tsume, disgust from Hiashi and Fugaku, an impassive one from Shibi and Hizashi and varying degrees of amazement and horror from the rest. Growing a tick-mark, Kushina asked irritably, "Anyone got a problem with us?" All the males immediately winced at what she did to the happy place of one of the bullies and turned around. The females followed at a more sedate pace.

* * *

Once they had all turned away, Naruto whispered into her ear, "You needn't have done that Kushina-chan. We're not exactly the most approachable people now." Turning to him, Naruto was treated to a sizable KI and Kushina cracking her knuckles, "Naruto-kun," she began with a sickly sweet voice, "do you have a _problem _with that?" Waving his hands quickly in front of him, Naruto backtracked with a sweatdrop on the back of his head, "No-no, it's just that if you hadn't intervened before him, I would've used a Katon Jutsu."

Totally ignoring the looks of disbelief from the class and a, "He's so whipped, troublesome," from Shikaku. Kushina's KI immediately disappeared to be replaced by a large smile, "Why thanks, Naruto-kun, it's nice to see that you care so much."

At this moment, the instructor chose to return and shooed the downed bullies from the front of the class, ignoring their complaints about a red-haired demon. "Alright class, we're going outside, it's time to assess your skills in taijutsu since you're graduating in a few years. It'll also be a good time to test how good our new students are." With that, the class filed out. As Naruto and Kushina headed down the stairs, they were intercepted by the other blonde boy from before and a female Uchiha. Motioning Kushina to go on first with the Uchiha, Naruto continued at a more sedate pace with the other blonde.

The blonde seemed to study him for a moment before asking, "You're the other Namikaze Hokage-sama talked about, Naruto." Aforementioned Namikaze continued walking, replying without turning his head, "And you're the one Old Man Third mentioned, Minato, right?" Faltering at the obvious disrespect for the Hokage, Minato replied, "Yeah, he told me you looked like me, but this is ridiculous." Chuckling lightly, Naruto replied, "Yeah, ya'know what, we could be brothers, so nice to meet you, Minato-nii-san." As he finished his sentence, Naruto stopped and extended his hand to Minato. Slightly taken aback by Naruto's honorific, Minato took his hand nonetheless, "Likewise, Naruto-nii-san."

* * *

Elsewhere, a black-haired girl was talking with a red-haired one, "So who's the blonde you came with, Uzumaki-san?"

"Oh, Naruto-kun? You heard his name, but he's someone I met on my way to Konoha."

Smiling deviously, the Uchiha girl replied sneakily, "'Naruto-kun', eh? So when's the wedding?" Her comment got the desired reaction as Kushina turned red like her hair and spluttered out, "Nani?! I have no idea what you're talking about, Uchiha-san. I'm not dating Naruto-kun, we're too young anyway, and we're just sharing an apartment since there were none left because of the war-" The other girl continued, her smile never leaving her face, "Oho, you're sharing an apartment with him too? _Interesting..._"

Giving the raven-haired girl a half-hearted elbow, Kushina giggled nervously before asking, "You know my name, Uchiha-san, but I do not know yours, so I'll ask now. What's your name?"

Grinning at her feeble try to change the subject but relenting nonetheless, the raven-haired Uchiha replied, "My name's Mikoto, Uzumaki-san. By the way, do you think I could call you Kushina-chan? If alright with you that is."

Tapping her lower lip in thought, Kushina mirrored the question she asked with Naruto, "only if I get to call you Mikoto-chan."

Nodding in assent, Mikoto replied, "Ok, I can live with that Kushina-chan." Kushina exclaimed, pumping her left arm in the air, "alright-ttebane!"  
Suddenly, a chuckle was heard behind the two girls, causing both of them to whirl around and lash out. Kushina's elbow was blocked by the blonde with whiskers while the other one with bangs was caught full on by Mikoto's kick to the groin.

* * *

Keeling over, Minato was quickly picked up by Naruto and Kushina while Mikoto fretted over him. Groaning, Minato exclaimed, "Mikoto-chan! That hurt!" Chuckling, Naruto picked him up and slung Minato's right arm over his shoulders before saying, "Hehehe, you have my sympathies Nii-san."

As they continued to walk into the courtyard, Minato felt better and was walking on his own. As they reached the centre of the courtyard, the instructor stared at them with a critical eye and said, "Well, now that we've all arrived, we can begin. First match, Uchiha Fugaku against Hyuuga Hizashi."

And so it continued, Privately, Naruto noted that Fugaku was well versed in the Uchiha Interceptor Style and Hiashi and Hizashi were excellent in the Jyuuken but in different ways. Hiashi excelled at offense and power while Hizashi preferred defence with quick but precise strikes. Inoichi used the academy style with average proficiency. Shikaku gave up as did Shibi, stating that it was too "troublesome" and that the Aburame did not rely on taijutsu so he did not know any. "Next up, Inuzuka Tsume against Namikaze Naruto."

* * *

As they took their stances, Naruto saw that Tsume used the Inuzuka Feral Style of directly attacking tendons and blood vessels with Kuromaru her ninken backing her. Naruto took a loose brawler stance with his legs apart and his fists rose to protect his face and torso. As they faced each other, Naruto said, "Let's have a good match, ne, Inuzuka-san?" Her response was a feral grin. The instructor walked up to the middle of the makeshift ring and raised his hand, quickly bringing it down he shouted, "Hajime!"

Immediately Tsume charged a Naruto on all fours. Using one of her arms as a pivot, she swung both her legs at him in a dual-sidekick. Ducking underneath her kick, Naruto quickly tripped her arm causing her to fall onto the floor. Springing up, he followed through with an axe-kick. Blocking it with both her arms Tsume growled at him with a feral expression. Sensing danger, Naruto quickly ducked under Kuromaru's lunge before using and open-palm strike to his ribs to launch Kuromaru out of the ring.

By this time Tsume had recovered and charged him again. This time Naruto charged as well and immediately performed an axe-kick. Tsume sidestepped it, noting with some fear that his kick caused a crack in the tiles of the courtyard, and swiped at him downwards using her claws. Naruto quickly retaliated by upper cutting her open hand, this caused her to involuntarily close her hand. Naruto immediately followed up with another upper cut to her closed hand, causing immense pain to her closed fingers.

* * *

Tsume jumped back, wincing as she nursed her hand. Naruto dropped his form for a second and asked, "Want to concede, Inuzuka-san?" A growl was his only answer. Sighing, Naruto immediately resumed his stance. Tsume charged again, this time on her feet since her hand hurt too much. As she reached him, she used her good arm as a pivot again to perform a side-kick.

Quickly sidestepping her kick, Naruto once again performed an axe-kick. This time, since her other arm was useless and she was in the middle of a kick, Tsume was caught head on and got slammed into the ground. Naruto flipped her onto her stomach and planted one of his knees between her shoulder blades and pushed her head down.

Naruto proceeded to place his other fist on her cheek, "Want to give up now, Inuzuka-san?" Grudgingly, she growled out, "yes."

At her submission, the instructor called out, "Winner, Namikaze Naruto."

* * *

Once Naruto's victory was announced, he immediately got off Tsume who stumbled to her feet. As she turned to walk away, he put his hand on her shoulder. Turning around, she shot him a questioning glance. He simply held out his hand which she shook.

Silently, Naruto walked over to his amazed friends. Kushina was the first to break the silence, "Wow that was awesome, Naruto-kun." "Yeah, Tsume is one of the best in this class at taijutsu, and you just beat her like it was nothing. What was that style anyway? I've never seen anything like it," Minato said, putting his own two cents in.

Naruto turned to watch Mikoto pulverise civilian-born student with her flexible and quick strikes. Still watching, he replied, "It's not a style, I'm a brawler by nature so I trained to have split-second reflexes and powerful but quick strikes. Also, it's not that I didn't have trouble with Tsume; it's just that I have more stamina so it didn't affect me visibly. If anything, Mikoto is a better fighter than me since she has more flexibility and an actual style."

The three were brought out of their conversation when Kushina was called out to fight. Seeing that Kushina was fighting one of the bullies from before, Naruto turned to Minato and said, "Watch Kushina carefully, Minato-nii-san."

Turning to Naruto for answers, Minato turned back to the match when Naruto said nothing just in time to see Kushina launch herself at the bully. As she approached, the bully rocketed his right leg at her in a side-kick. Kushina ducked under his kick and tripped him as Naruto did, swinging her leg around the back of his knee joint to collapse it. The bully fell backwards; as he fell Kushina jumped up and grabbed his head. Pulling him toward her, Kushina's knee met his nose in a devastating blow that more than likely shattered his nose. Not done yet, Kushina used the same leg to front-kick his ribcage, kicking him backwards and out of the ring.

* * *

It was from this brutal match and her fiery temperament that Kushina gained her nickname: The Red Hot Habanero. Huffing, Kushina threw her hair back over her shoulder and walked back to Minato and Mikoto who were in awe. Naruto on the other hand, had an enormous grin on his face. As she reached him, he threw his arm around her shoulders and said, "Great job, Kushina-chan!"

Fighting her blush, she stuck out her tongue and replied, "Ha! I finished mine faster!" Pouting, Naruto began to argue with her about their matches. The two of them were so into their argument that they missed the sweatdrops of Mikoto and Minato. Turning to Minato, Mikoto said, "They so like each other, right, Minato-kun?" Minato continued to watch them bicker and replied, "Yeah, they so like each other Mikoto-chan."

The four children were brought back from their own conversation when the instructor called out once again, "Final match, Namikaze Naruto against Namikaze Minato."

* * *

At the announcement of the next match, excited whispers broke out amongst the rest of the class. Understandable considering the class prodigy Minato was about to face an unknown opponent that seemingly easily defeated one of the clan heirs that specialised in taijutsu.

"Now I'll be able to see how good you are, Minato-nii-san," Naruto remarked as they moved into the ring, ignoring the increase in volume of murmurings at his suffix for the prodigy. Turning to his counterpart, Minato replied with a smirk, "I should be the one saying that Naruto-nii-san." His response was a feral grin not unlike the one Tsume gave him a few minutes ago.

As they separated to their respective places to the diagonal left and right of the proctor, Naruto noted the attire Minato wore. Besides his sweater from earlier, he wore black baggy cargo pants that were secured with tape below his knees. He wore a black variant of the standard blue shinobi sandals.

As the two blondes faced each other, the tension before the fight was thick enough to be cut with a kunai; as the proctor slowly raised his hand, both opponents tensed, smirking internally the proctor reflected on how bright to will of fire burned in both.

"Hajime," jumping back, the instructor observed how both blondes took identical stances, their hips squared and feet apart with their arms in ready stance with the left slightly higher than the right to protect the face and torso with the right lower to protect the abdomen and thighs.

* * *

Predictably, Naruto charged first. As he got in range, Minato braced for a strike, what he expected has a side kick or straight punch. What he got was Naruto spinning around to his back and using the momentum from his run to perform a reverse-spin kick.

Ducking, Minato spun backwards to trip Naruto's remaining leg. Reacting quickly, Naruto used the momentum from his kick that remained to flip sideways onto a one-handed handstand. Putting his other hand onto the ground, Naruto spun his legs like a top and forced Minato to jump away.

As he jumped away, Minato attempted to come up with a strategy, _'He's stronger than me, but I'm faster. I could try to out speed him, but the difference is only marginally. He's also a lot more flexible than me. Ok, I'm so royally screwed. Well, might as well go down fighting.'_

* * *

As he flipped back upright, Naruto thanked Kami that he had asked Lee and Gai for taijutsu training. Although he didn't use the Goken due to his nature, Naruto knew some of Gai's moves.

Charging again, Naruto was met by Minato. As they got in range of each other, Naruto appeared to duck down for a trip. Catching Naruto's movement, Minato jumped in the air in an attempt to get behind Naruto like he did before. To his surprise Naruto jumped in the air, his duck actually used to feint Minato and to coil his muscles for the jump.

Silently thanking Gai for his lessons, Naruto jumped and caught Minato in the gut with his spin-kick. As he connected, he yelled, "Konoha Senpu!" As he connected, Naruto winced at the pained look in Minato's eyes as they separated. Naruto landed on his feet whereas Minato was thrown backwards by the kick.

* * *

Quickly putting on a burst of speed, Naruto managed to catch up to Minato before he hit the ground. But, being the academy student that Naruto was, he couldn't fully negate the force of the kick and they both hit the ground, Minato landing painfully hard on Naruto's spine.

Whistling, the instructor was impressed at the taijutsu both Namikaze possessed as well as Naruto's care for his comrade. Internally filling that away for his reports, the instructor settled for a, "Winner, Namikaze Naruto."

At his announcement, the class seemed to shake itself out of the trance from watching Minato and Naruto. Immediately the class broke into murmurs of a varying nature. Some were speaking of how lucky the bullies were previously that Naruto chose not to retaliate, others spoke in undisguised jealousy and awe of the two. Shikaku settled for a, "troublesome blondes," that got him a chuckle from Chouza and a whack upside the head by Inoichi.

Kushina and Mikoto immediately rushed to Naruto and Minato, the latter wheezing from the kick and still sitting painfully on his blonde counterpart.  
Chuckling at the two girls tending to the Namikaze heirs, the instructor restarted the matches, this time saying that jutsu were allowed, not thinking that the academy students actually HAD any jutsu.

He was pleasantly surprised that Shikaku knew the **Kageshibari no Jutsu, **Fugaku knew the **Goukakyuu**, Tsume knew **Gatsuuga **and Shibi already had his Kikaichu. By now Naruto and Minato had recovered. Calling Naruto for a match against one of the bullies from earlier, he noticed the sadistic gleam in Naruto's eyes and wondered what he would do.

His question was answered when he began the match. Naruto created five Kage Bunshin and surrounded his victim-err-opponent. Once he was surrounded, Naruto remarked, "Mm, barbeque, **Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!**" With that, five fire balls went blazing at the unfortunate child who wet himself.

* * *

After the twitching and singed boy had been sent to the nurse, the instructor pulled Naruto aside and asked sternly, "Naruto! Why exactly were you trying to kill your fellow classmate?" Naruto looked at the instructor with a bemused expression and replied, "But sensei, I wasn't trying to kill him," as he continued, a sadistic grin appeared on his face, "if I was trying to kill him I would've used the **Karyu Endan**."

Sweatdropping, the instructor sent Naruto away, noting that the gleam was something brought on by Naruto's protectiveness of Kushina. Sighing, he went back to the matches all the while thinking, '_that kid, he's even more advanced than those in their final year, the other Namikaze heir, the Uchiha and Uzumaki heir and heiresses; the Inuzuka, Aburame, Yamanaka, Nara and Akimichi too. Why won't I be surprised if they graduate early? Kami-sama, I do feel old. Ah well, at least class won't be boring now.'_

* * *

**A/N: More action and character development in this chapter. I realize that I never stated what any of the characters wore other than Naruto, Kushina and Minato. The reason for that is that it would be too time consuming and boring to read, I'll just put the descriptions of them in the chapter where they become Gennin.**

**Jutsu list:**

**Kawirimi-replacement,**

**Henge-transform,**

**Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu-Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu,**

**Fuuton: Daioppa no Jutsu-Wind Release: Great Breakthrough,**

**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu-Shadow Clone Jutsu,**

**Rasengan-spiralling sphere,**

**Fuuton: Rasenshuriken-Wind Release: Spiralling Shuriken,**

**Katon: Karyu Endan-Fire Release: Dragon Flame Missile,**

**Kageshibari no Jutsu-Shadow Paralysis Jutsu,**

**Gatsuuga-Fang over Fang**

**Oh yea, try listening to: "Shikamaru theme" by Jose Huamani on YouTube for the fights. Good song, kinda like a blend of Shika's original theme with Asuma's.**


	4. Chapter 2: Of Sensei and Seals

**Chapter 2: Of Sensei and Seals**

====================1 year later==============

It was summer in Konohagakure no Sato. Today was a special summer day, it was the day that 12 Gennin graduated the academy, normally this would be bad considering that 12 Gennin meant that there would be fewer troops for the war.

Normally being the key word. Actually, today was the day 12 Gennin graduated the academy after only four years as opposed to the usual 6. Currently, one of those Gennin was being chased across Konoha by a horde of the thing that caused even the most battle-hardened Shinobi to shy away from.

Fangirls.

This blonde's name was Namikaze Naruto. Normally he would be chased across Konoha from his apartment to the academy. Normally, he would have his friends to bail him out; unfortunately today he woke up late and so had to bear the burden alone.

Panting heavily, Naruto sat down in a seat next to the window. His logic being so the two snickering people next to him would get mauled by Fangirls first, giving him the time to escape.

* * *

"It isn't funny, Minato-nii-san, Kushina-chan," the harassed blonde whined. Over the year, Naruto changed somewhat. He was currently standing at 148cm, not bad considering his age as a 12 year old. He now wore a navy blue shirt with its sleeves rolled up just under the elbows. On his right shoulder was the insignia of whirlpool. He wore another orange jacket, again sleeveless, over said shirt. He wore black cargo pants with two orange stripes running vertically down the outsides of the pants legs. His footwear was the standard shinobi sandals with tape running up his shins to secure his pants. Naruto also wore two equipment pouches on the back of his hips with a kunai holster on his left thigh. Over the years, he grew his hair out, its length now matched Minato's shoulder-length hair, and the only difference was that he did not grow bangs to show some difference between them. His Hiatai-ate was tied securely on his forehead.

Minato and Kushina on the other hand preferred not to change their wardrobe and continued to wear the same style of clothing as before, both had their Hiatai-ate on their foreheads as well. Mikoto had changed as well; currently she had shoulder-length hair that she kept in a low ponytail with her bangs free to roughly frame her face. She wore a navy-blue battle kimono that went to her mid-thighs with white pants underneath that went to the middle of her shins. She also wore black shinobi sandals and she too had her Hiatai-ate tied around her forehead.

Now, Naruto stood at 148cm, Minato at a close 144, Kushina at 134 and Mikoto at 138.

* * *

The four were currently engaged in a conversation with Tsume, who was wearing a black hoodie with white fur at the ends and white three-quarter pants, about their Jounin sensei's and their team placements. After a few minutes, four adults walked through the door to the classroom.

The most noticeable of the four was the largest. Standing at over 200cm, he stood at least a head taller than the other sensei. Said man had shaggy white hair that he kept in a ponytail that reached his mid-back. He wore the Konoha Hiatai-ate on his forehead; he had two curious looking red streaks coming from the sides of his eyes down his face, almost like blooded tear tracks. He wore a black shirt with a fishnet undershirt, this was covered by a standard Konoha flak jacket with a dark grey metal armour piece that went from his torso down to his waist and had two attached shoulder guards over it. He wore armguards made out of the same metal. He also wore matching black cargo pants that were tucked into his knee-length boots that had shin guards in the same style as his armguards strapped over it.

The next was a kind-faced man that stood at around 180cm tall. He too had white hair like the first and too kept it in a ponytail that went down to his mid-back; however unlike the first he lacked the two streaks on his face. He also wore his Konoha emblem on his forehead. He wore the standard attire for Jounin and Chunin: a navy-blue long sleeved shirt with matching ANBU-style pants with a flak jacket. The different feature about him was his left sleeve. He had a white sleeve with red flames on his left arm over his shirt. The sleeve bore the crest of whirlpool. He also carried some form of blade on his back but as it was sheathed the Gennin did not know what it was, only that it was the correct length for a tanto.

* * *

The next sensei was a hard-faced man who stood at slightly less than 170cm. He wore the Konoha symbol on the front of his bandana and had a twig with two small leaves in his mouth. He wore the standard Konoha Jounin uniform.

The final and smallest sensei was a woman who stood at around 160cm and had no visible expression on her face. She wore a white battle kimono with black shinobi pants underneath. The most striking thing about her was her eyes; they were pale lavender and were pupil-less similar to Hiashi and Hizashi's.

The woman spoke first, followed by the man with a twig and finally the man who had the streaks on his face. Calling for Tsume, Hiashi and Shibi, they followed the woman out of the room. Next the man with a twig called for Inoichi, Shikaku and Chouza and they too left. The largest man yelled for the "Blonde haired gaki with bangs", the "gaki with a pole up his ass" and Mikoto, who he strangely referred to by name, to meet him on the roof.

* * *

This left Naruto, Kushina and Hizashi with the kind-faced man. Sitting on the table in the front row he faced them and smiled, "Hello. My name is Hatake Sakumo; I'll be the Jounin sensei for you three. As of now, you three are known as Squad 7 or Squad Sakumo. Since we'll be training together I think we should get to know one another. I'll start. My name as Hatake Sakumo as you know, my likes are sweet food and my village and comrades. My dislikes are people who would put personal safety over their comrades. I'm a kenjutsu user and I have a fire affinity, my dream is to protect the Leaf Village." Nodding to Naruto, he motioned him to start, "My name is Namikaze Naruto, I like ramen, my friends and Kushina-chan, and I dislike perverts, rapists and the 3 minutes it takes for instant ramen to cook, and my dream for the future would be to have the strength to protect my precious people and if I can, to have a family."

Nodding at Naruto, Sakumo remarked, "That is a worthy dream," before turning to Hizashi. Seeing that it was his turn, Hizashi closed his eyes and spoke, "I am Hyuuga Hizashi, and I like my clan and training with my brother Hiashi. I dislike the caged bird seal and the short-sightedness of the main branch for using it. My dream..." at this point Hizashi opened his eyes and looked at a bird flying outside from a window, "Would be to be free."

* * *

Nodding in acceptance, Sakumo turned to Kushina who confidently said, "I'm Uzumaki Kushina, I like ramen, music and Naruto-kun, I dislike perverts, rapists and people who think boys are better than girls, and my dream for the future would be to have a family."

Smiling warmly, Sakumo stood up and began walking out of the classroom, signalling his team to follow. As they walked out of the academy he began talking but never once paused to see if they were listening or even following him, "Now then, we're heading over to training ground seven. That is going to be our regular training ground since teams often use the corresponding training ground number. From now on you guys can call me Sakumo-sensei or just sensei is fine."

His instructions finished, they lapsed into silence as the Gennin took in their surroundings to memorise the route to their new training ground.  
After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at their training ground. The training ground was actually a clearing in the surrounding forest. The portion near the entrance held an intriguing object; a purple stone that looked like two triangles that were balanced on each other's base. The stone sat on a hexagonal base made of the same type of strange stone.

Further in there was a fast-flowing river that showed the end of the training ground, the left and right sides held forest.*

Stopping in the middle of the clearing, Sakumo turned to face the three Gennin and unsheathed his blade. Now that it was unsheathed they could see what it looked like. The grip of the blade seemed to be a black rectangle that was long enough for most adults to hold comfortably in one hand or children to hold in two. The cross guard was an oval-shaped piece of steel that would keep an enemy's blade from sliding down the blade of the tanto and onto the wielder's hand. The blade itself was quite long for a tanto, around 40 cm.

* * *

The blade of the tanto was the most extraordinary thing about it. It was made of a shining white metal that was so clear and bright it acted as a mirror. But it was what Sakumo was doing with the blade was what made it extraordinary. Ordinarily, when a shinobi channelled chakra into a weapon it wasn't visible. On the occasions that it was it was a light blue in colour. But the blade of Sakumo's tanto was shining a brilliant white.

The sight of Sakumo's tanto shining in the morning sunlight was mesmerising to the new Gennin. Naruto was the first to break out of the trance, still staring at the blade he whispered, "The _White Light Chakra Sabre." _Suddenly the realisation hit him and he turned to Sakumo in disbelief, "You're-"

Laughing heartily, Sakumo brought Kushina and Hizashi out of their trance, "Good deduction Naruto-kun, yes I'm the Konoha no Shiroi Kiba-the White Fang of the Leaf."

This statement was enough to put Kushina and Hizashi back into their trance while Naruto ran around the training ground screaming in happiness. Sighing at the energetic blonde's actions, Sakumo grabbed Naruto by his hood as he was running past.

Dropping him, he proceeded to give Kushina and Hizashi two bonks on the heads with the flat of his blade. Rubbing their heads, Sakumo sighed once more and said, "Now then, while I'm pleased that you guys are so excited about having me as a sensei, we really need to start with training," walking over to the three stumps next to the river he continued, "We'll begin by sparring, you have to land a hit on me or last 10 minutes in the spar, whichever comes first. If you fail to do either, you end up tied to the stump while the rest of us eat our lunch. Think of it as incentive to try and win."

* * *

Setting a bento on the top of each of the stumps, Sakumo walked off to the middle of the training ground, "Alright, first up Hizashi. Use everything you have. If you don't come at me with the intent to kill, you're never going to hit me."

Nodding, Hizashi stood opposite Sakumo and got into his defensive Jyuuken stance. Seeing Hizashi's ready stance, Sakumo got into his stance with his tanto in his right hand. His stance was him facing Hizashi with his left hand stretched out in front of him and his right hand with his tanto stretched out behind him.

Using his fingers to illustrate, Sakumo began the match, "3, 2, 1, Hajime!"

After beginning, Sakumo charged Hizashi at incredible speeds; well, incredible to a Gennin at least. He was pleasantly surprised when Hizashi ducked under his horizontal swipe and attempted an uppercut to his tenketsu in his upper arm.

Grabbing Hizashi's wrist, Sakumo flung him away, as he landed Sakumo remarked, "I'm impressed, that speed would be normal for a Chunin and you reacted in time to counter my swipe. Your strikes are also quick and agile."

Smirking, Hizashi replied, "You're not too bad yourself sensei." With that Hizashi charged at Sakumo who was again surprised at Hizashi's tactics. Meeting him halfway, Sakumo swung his tanto vertically downwards at Hizashi who sidestepped and attempted another strike but was forced to jump away when Sakumo followed up with a horizontal slash to just below Hizashi's navel.

This continued for a few minutes, with Sakumo and Hizashi dancing around each other, neither seeming to get anywhere until Hizashi made a mistake. After Sakumo attempted a diagonal slash that would have hit Hizashi's kidney and cut him to his shoulder, Hizashi tried to make a quick palm strike to Sakumo's chest. Underestimating Sakumo's speed, Hizashi overextended himself and paid the price. Once Hizashi extended his palm, Sakumo twirled out of the way and stopped behind Hizashi, his glowing tanto mere millimetres from Hizashi's neck.

Smiling, Sakumo remarked, "Guess it's the stump for you, eh, Hizashi-kun?" After he tied Hizashi to the stump he walked back to the field. Naruto turned from Sakumo to look at Hizashi whose eyebrow was twitching. In Hyuuga terms this was equivalent to kicking and screaming obscenities at Sakumo.

Turning back around to face Sakumo, he heard Sakumo call for Kushina. Quickly putting his hand to her shoulder to stop her, he whispered, "Kushina-chan, he's a Jounin. If he pushes you to the brink, use _that_." Kushina gave an almost imperceptible nod before continuing to face Sakumo.

As they stood across from each other, Sakumo got in his stance from before. Kushina reached into her kunai pouch and took out two kunai and held them in a reverse grip.

* * *

Sakumo smiled before beginning the match. Once he began, Kushina charged him with her two kunai. As she got in range Sakumo lazily swung his tanto at her, blocking his swipe, her kunai was cut clean through. Cursing with descriptive words no 12 year old should know, Kushina quickly spun out of the way of his swing and tried to use her remaining kunai to stab him in the liver while she aimed her leg at his kidney.

Smiling at her good adaptation, Sakumo cut her kunai with his tanto and caught her kick with his free hand. Narrowing her eyes at him, Kushina used her trapped leg as leverage and swung her other leg at his head. Ducking, Sakumo swung at her exposed waist; only to cut into a log which she Kawarimi-ed with.

Seeing as the smoke from the jutsu obscured his vision for a moment, Sakumo swiped his hand in front of him to clear the smoke but was unable to catch a glimpse of her as she fled to the surrounding trees.

* * *

Heaving a sigh of relief, Kushina stopped to think, _'He knows I'm here, there's no way he couldn't. I'll just have to surprise him; time to use your favourite move Naruto.'_

Back at the stumps, Naruto came to the same conclusion Kushina did. Smiling, he turned back to Sakumo. _'Things are about to get interesting. Kushina will show sensei that we're no ordinary Gennin.' _Scowling internally, Naruto added, _'They never did promote me back in the fourth war. Even as the commander for the second division after Kitsuchi-san was killed they still listed me as a Gennin. Tch, they never could get over their fear and hatred.'_

Meanwhile, Sakumo was watching Kushina plan via a Kage Bunshin spying on her; completely unaware that Kushina had sensed him. Silently thanking Naruto and Mikoto for helping her hone her skills as a sensory ninja, Kushina figured out a two-phase plan.

Smirking, she quietly spoke, "**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.**" Immediately, 20 Kage Bunshin surrounded her, flashing identical smirks, they rushed off. Widening his eyes, the Sakumo Bunshin dispersed. Back at the clearing the real Sakumo received the information his Bunshin collected. _'How did she make that many Kage Bunshin? Most Chunin wouldn't be able to, and a rookie Jounin can do that but not without side-effects like her. Is this a part of being a Jinchurriki? Or does she just have naturally large reserves like Naruto is reported to have. Hmm...'_

* * *

A loud noise interrupted his thoughts, said noise being the sound of 5 trumpets of water being fired at him from the treeline, identical cries of, "**Suiton: Mizurappa,**" coming from the same place followed by five "poofs" signalling that the clones dispelled. Dodging the streams, Sakumo was impressed at Kushina's advancement at her elemental techniques; especially how her clones were able to perform her technique, meaning that she could use the Mizurappa with 1/20th of her chakra; not an easy feat considering her circumstances.

He was so impressed that he almost didn't dodge the shuriken thrown at him by the remaining Kushina Bunshin, "almost" being the keyword. Jumping away from the majority of the shuriken and cutting up the rest, Sakumo was then bombarded by the remaining clones.

They clones attempted to use a combination of taijutsu, Mizurappa shots and shuriken to herd him towards the river. Noticing this, Sakumo inwardly smirked. _'Herding me to the river to increase the power of her Suiton jutsu? Smart, well I'll play along. I'm curious to see what she can do.'_

Meanwhile, the original Kushina somewhere in the throng inwardly smirked as well. _'Phase 1 is working, now I need one of my clones to get behind him.'_

Back at the stumps, Naruto smiled at Kushina's excellent plan, "That's right Kushina-chan, don't let sensei get a chance to breathe and figure it out." Hizashi had activated his Byakugan sometime during the fight and also had an idea of what Kushina was about to do and was impressed at her plan, not that he'd ever openly say it of course.

* * *

Meanwhile with Sakumo, he was impressed with the level of coordination Kushina showed with her Bunshin. Finally reaching the banks of the river, Sakumo ducked under another stream of water when he felt someone behind him. Cursing mentally, he found himself pinned down by the stream of water above him and the Kushina Bunshin to his sides.

As he felt the person behind him growing closer, Sakumo debated whether or not to Kawarimi with one of the Bunshin but decided not to. Kushina had already shown excellent skills with her clones and ninjutsu. In fact, he would recommend her for Chunin if not for her inexperience in the field.

Feeling the person almost on top of him, Sakumo smirked. Expecting a hit, he was unprepared for what happened next, "**Suiton: Suiro no Jutsu!" **_'Nani?! Not just the Mizurappa, the Suiro too. What other Jutsu does she know? Got to move! Crap, I can't, I'm already being enveloped. Kami, if this is what the young ones are capable of now that they have just graduated I'm scared of what they'll be when they're Jounin.'_

Once Sakumo got caught in the prison, Kushina dispelled all her clones except the one holding the Jutsu and proceeded to scream, "Yatta!" As loud as she could which, while not as loud as a Haruno, was still pretty loud. Smiling despite his imprisonment, Sakumo asked, his voice slightly garbled because of the water, "Mind telling me how you got a clone behind me? I didn't see any of them sneak past."

Kushina turned from her position facing a cheering Naruto and an embarrassed Hizashi, she answered, "Simple, when I threw those shuriken just now, some of them in the main group you dodged were the Bunshin who used the Mizurappa. The "poofs" were them using the Henge. I just had the rest herd you to the river where the other Bunshin were."

* * *

Smiling even wider, Sakumo replied, "I'm truly impressed. But you know you haven't actually hit me. And it's only been 8 minutes." Shooting him a deadpan expression, Kushina replied, "You know I could just hold you there for another 2 minutes right?" Tilting his head in mock revelation, Sakumo replied, "So you could," to the sweatdrops of his Gennin.

A few minutes later a dripping wet Sakumo was standing opposite a grinning Naruto. Starting the match, Sakumo opted for a defensive strategy this time, settling to watch Naruto.

Throwing a smoke bomb onto the ground in front of him, Sakumo wondered in mild interest what Naruto was planning. Suddenly, five kunai went flying out of the smoke and at him, blocking them, he noted with interest that they didn't split like they normally would when sliced by his tanto but were deflected.

_'First Kushina could use Suiton jutsu, now Naruto can push Fuuton chakra into his kunai. How much else can they do?' _Sakumo returned from his thoughts when somewhere around 50 Naruto Bunshins came out of the smoke and charged him, _'Nani? He knows the Kage Bunshin too?'_ Sakumo was forcefully brought out of his thoughts again when he felt heat above him. Looking up, his eyes widened when he saw 5 fireballs heading down at him.

* * *

Quickly Kawarimi-ing with one of Naruto's clones, he watched as the fireballs crashed into the ground; making a sizable crater, _'wow, he's really taking the "come at me with the intent to kill" thing seriously. Well I guess is asked for it; but seriously, Katon AND Fuuton? This is getting ridiculous. What will he know next, Karyu Endan or something like that, geez?'_

He was forced to jump back as the clones located him again and attacked him with straight taijutsu, this time driving him away from the river so as to cut him off from the water to use Suiton techniques. Suddenly, he saw five Naruto's break off and surround him on three sides, his flanks and the side facing the entrance to the training ground.

He was quickly swamped by Kage Bunshin again and could see no more until her heard three shouts of, "**Fuuton: Renkudan,"** one shout of, "**Fuuton: Daioppa." **Suddenly all of the clones around him dispelled leaving him with nothing to Kawirimi with which he noted. Now that the Bunshin were gone, Sakumo could see that the three Bunshin he saw previously had launched three highly compressed wind bullets at him each. And that one of the Bunshin in front of him had used the Daioppa to box him in, an intelligent strategy he noted.

* * *

Suddenly, the Naruto beside the one who released the Daioppa finished the hand seals he was working on, "**Katon: Karyu Endan!"** His eyes widening as he took in the scale of the fire dragon that doubled in size when it connected with the Daioppa and what it would do when it combined with the wind bullets heading towards him, Sakumo could only think of one thing, _'I just had to jinx it didn't I...'_

The resounding explosion was enough to make a mushroom cloud above the training ground. Suddenly, Sakumo appeared behind Naruto, his tanto around his neck. Smirking, Sakumo remarked, "Impressive Naruto-kun, very impressive. In fact, once we've done the appropriate amount of missions, I've a right mind to recommend you and Kushina-chan for Chunin. But you've lost."

Since Naruto's back was towards Sakumo, he never noticed the smirk on the blonde's face. Suddenly bringing his hand up to hold Sakumo's wrist, Naruto replied, "Actually, you've lost sensei." That was when Sakumo felt the kunai against his neck.

Dropping his tanto, Sakumo chucked before saying, "Alright, I give Naruto-kun. You win, but how did you get behind me?" Removing the kunai from Sakumo's neck, Naruto replied, "When you went for me, one of my Bunshins dispelled and I Kawarimi-ed with the Bunshin next to me."

Sakumo affectionately ruffled Naruto's head as they walked back to the stumps where an awestruck Kushina and an ever-stoic Hizashi were waiting. When they reached the stumps, Sakumo handed Naruto and Kushina their lunches before patting Hizashi on the head and saying, "better luck next time Hizashi-kun," much to his hidden annoyance.

Once they sat down to eat, Sakumo said, "Now then, you guys have half an hour to eat and recover from our matched while I go file a report with the Hokage about your performance. When I get back we're going to have some physical training as well as work on our teamwork," with that he shunshined away. Unbeknownst to them, Sakumo actually did not have to file a report and was actually observing what they did during the break.

* * *

Once he left, Naruto and Kushina looked at their food before nodding at one another and dividing a third of it and offering it to Hizashi. Seeing his questioning look, Naruto sighed and said, "Look, you're going to be hungry if we don't feed you and you're our teammate to we stick together. Besides, you're not as much of an asshole as Hiashi-teme so that's a plus." Kushina picked up from there and simply said, "We're Konoha Shinobi now and we take care of our own." With that they began feeding Hizashi since his hands were still tied.

Back in a tree where Sakumo was watching and suppressing his chakra to avoid Kushina's detection; he was impressed and proud that Naruto and Kushina grasped teamwork so easily, and that they could make Hizashi open up so easily judging by their smiling faces. _'Yup, definitely Chunin material. Both Naruto and Kushina have the elemental mastery of their techniques and they both show teamwork and the ability to plan ahead. And from what I heard from their introduction Naruto already has the Will of Fire. Perhaps when Kakashi-chan is old enough I can introduce them...he needs a role model in his life other than me.'_ Noting that the half an hour was up he went over and untied Hizashi before beginning their team training until around 4pm or so and dismissed them with the instructions to meet him back there at 7am the next day.

Several hours later, Naruto and Kushina were walking to Ichiraku's for dinner with their friends. Seeing that the others were there already they sped up and met them as they entered the Ramen Stand. Over the years, they had gotten to know Tsume through Kushina who Tsume liked from her similar hot-headedness and tomboy nature. Shikaku and Naruto were also friends and by extension, Inoichi and Chouza.

As they sat on their stools, Tsume looking wide-eyed at Naruto and Minato who were both inhaling ramen. When she asked the others about how they did not seem affected, they simply replied that as long as they weren't paying they were fine with it. Well, all of them except Kushina who shrugged and said, "He gets a limit of 10 bowls, any more and he sleeps on the couch." When Tsume asked where Naruto would usually sleep Kushina's blush was an answer enough.

* * *

After around 5 bowls each, Minato and Naruto slowed down enough to partake in the casual conversation. Apparently Tsume's squad was a tracking squad hence why they had an Aburame, Inuzuka and Hyuuga; all of which were famed as trackers.

Minato's squad had no real purpose as of yet since none of them had any preference in jutsu or fighting style yet. Which was the same reason given by Inoichi when asked about it. When Naruto was asked what his squad specialised in, he shrugged and said, "Sakumo-sensei hasn't told us yet."

Realising that they had not yet told each other the names of their sensei, they began to introduce them. It was revealed that Minato's sensei was one of the legendary Sannin Jiraiya, Tsume's was a woman named Hyuuga Hitomi and Shikaku's was a man named Shiranui Gekko which Naruto filled away for later reference. When Kushina was asked who Naruto and her sensei was she told them that it was Hatake Sakumo.

Suddenly noticing the lack of three people, Inoichi asked where Hizashi, Hiashi and Fugaku were. Kushina replied that Hizashi had to report to their clan head about his team and couldn't come. Mikoto simply replied, "Teme," to account for Fugaku which Tsume repeated for Hiashi.

After a few hours of chatter about their new teams, sensei and what they did that day, the Gennin began to head home. One by one they all left until it was just Minato, Mikoto, Naruto and Kushina. As they prepared to leave, Naruto noticed that Mikoto was about to leave alone and was looking rather forlornly at Minato. Nudging Minato in her direction, Naruto whispered in his ear, "Minato-nii-san, be the gentlemen and walk her home," noticing the dubious look in Minato's eyes he sighed before elaborating, "look, just do it, it's impolite to allow a lady to go home herself. Besides you like her and don't even try to deny it. Look, just go, you'll thank me for it later."

* * *

**(Play "Meadows of Heaven" by Gregorian, do it now!)**With that Naruto noticed Minato's hesitance and rolled his eyes before bodily pushing Minato to Mikoto's side who mouthed a "thanks you" behind Minato's back. As he watched Minato and Mikoto walk off, satisfyingly noting that Mikoto looked much happier while Minato looked nervous at the fact that Mikoto was holding his hand but happy nonetheless; Kushina quietly sidled up next to him and absentmindedly leaning against him as she too looked at Minato and Mikoto's retreating figures with happiness.

Once their figures had fully disappeared, the sun had already set, the residual light turning the sky to a warm orange; incidentally the same orange as the jumper a certain blonde was wearing. As they were walking back to their apartment, Kushina leaning on Naruto slightly, they spoke on how Minato's funny and active personality complimented Mikoto's slightly more serious and mature one.

Eventually Naruto asked, "Kushina-chan, since Mikoto and Minato-nii-san so obviously like each other, I think we should get them together. Not actively I mean, but nudge them in the right direction like I did just now." Smiling, Kushina nodded her agreement since she shared the same thoughts about Minato and Mikoto's relationship.

After a few minutes of walking in a comfortable silence the two Gennin arrived back at their apartment. Stepping inside, they went to go change into more comfortable clothes. Over the course of their stay in the apartment, nothing much had changed, the walls were a warm dull orange and the hardwood floor was a polished as always thanks to Kage Bunshin.

The only difference was that Naruto and Kushina bought some bookcases for the bedroom. Thanks to their somewhat varied tastes in literature, the bookshelves had a decent variety in them: cookbooks for Kushina, notes on the elemental countries for Naruto and a variety of storybooks and jutsu related scrolls for the two of them.

* * *

Actually, sometime during their third year in the academy, Kushina discovered her talent for Fuinjutsu. Naruto also shared an interest in Fuinjutsu but his natural talent was exceeded by Kushina's. Currently Naruto was studying his second level out of ten on Fuinjutsu mastery while Kushina was also on her second. They also discovered Naruto's love for kenjutsu. Unfortunately, due to personal reasons Naruto chose not to learn kenjutsu; when Kushina asked he replied that none of the blades they found felt, "right" as he called it.

Lying in bed together sometime later while reading a book on different kinds of wind jutsu, well Naruto reading and Kushina using him as a pillow, Naruto closed the book and asked, "ne, Kushina-chan you've mastered your water affinity haven't you?" Receiving an affirming grunt as a response he continued, "Then perhaps we should work on increasing your arsenal of Suiton jutsu and work on developing your other nature, perhaps also get you to try kenjutsu. Also, we need to get Minato to convince his sensei to look at your seal. I read in the Konoha history book that Jiraiya was a Fuinjutsu master, so if he looks at your seal we can get him to tell us if it may weaken from anything and if it's breaking to get him to fix it."

Smiling as she snuggled closer into Naruto's chest, Kushina replied, "hai. That would be a good idea." The two preteens lapsed into a comfortable silence before Kushina yawned and said, "Naruto-kun, it's pretty late, you should get some sleep." Chuckling softly, Naruto had a peek at their bedside alarm clock. _'It's 12 already? Wow it is getting late. We'd better get to sleep. And anyways, we need to track down Jiraiya-sama tomorrow after training.'_

Letting out a catlike yawn, Naruto placed his book on the bedside table before snuggling downwards so he was lying down instead of being propped up on the pillows before flicking off the lamp on the bedside table next to his book. They again lapsed into silence before Kushina sleepily said, "Ne, Naruto-kun, thanks for doing all of this for me," before falling asleep with her head resting on Naruto's chest and her hands clutching his shirt and their legs intertwined.

Naruto smiled softly before tenderly kissing Kushina's forehead and replying, "No need to thank me Kushina-chan," with tenderness in his voice; there was also another, more obscure emotion hidden in the blue of his eyes. But because of the dark it went unseen, however considering Kushina's grip tightening on his white shirt, not unheard.

The next morning, Kushina awoke to the sound of eggs cooking and a noticeable lack of a certain blonde pillow. Yawning as she trudged into their kitchen, she was greeted with the sight of 5 Narutos cooking breakfast. Noticing her, one of the Naruto Bunshin called from its shoulder, "We have to meet Sakumo-sensei in an hour, Boss is doing his morning run, and he wants you to meet him at the training ground after you're done eating."

* * *

Touched at Naruto's thoughtfulness, Kushina went to change into her normal shinobi outfit before eating the breakfast the Bunshin prepared for her and hopping across the rooftops towards Training Ground 7.

Several minutes of hopping later, Kushina found Naruto and Hizashi at training ground 7, the former abusing one of the stumps by hitting it repeatedly which was causing audible creaking noises which; judging by Hizashi's noticeable eye twitch, was annoying when one was subjected to it for long periods of time.

As she approached them, Hizashi finally snapped and irritably said, "Namikaze, for the love of Kami, if you don't stop hitting that stupid stump I swear; I WILL seal off all of your tenketsu!" The aforementioned Namikaze grabbed the collar of Hizashi's white kimono and growled, "Got a problem with my training, Hyuuga?!"

Sighing, Kushina walked up to the two boys who by this time were about to strike each other and gave them both a thump on the head. Well, a thump for Kushina that sent both of them faces first, into the grass. Seeing their mirrored looks of annoyance she sighed and replied, "Well what did you guys expect me to do? Ask nicely?" Letting out an unladylike snort, she continued, "like hell that would've worked. Geez, what is it with males and their tempers; and they say I like to fight."

As she finished her sentence, Sakumo chose that moment to shunshin in front of them. Flashing them a slightly sadistic smile, he began, "right then, today we'll be doing some endurance and combat training. Afterwards we'll break for lunch and do some D-ranked missions. Since we're in a war, the D-ranks we'll be doing are stuff like checking supplies, packing medical kits at the hospital with Tsunade-sama and checking the condition of the kunai and shuriken; among other normal missions."

After his instructions were finished, Sakumo then made his three Gennin run laps around the training field until they collapsed from exhaustion, Hizashi stopped at around 200 laps while Naruto stopped at 500 and Kushina at 550. After they caught their breath, Sakumo made them spar with one another in a taijutsu spar which Hizashi predictably excelled at.

* * *

Afterwards, he introduced them to tree-walking which Naruto already knew and Hizashi got easily due to the amount of chakra control required to use the Jyuuken in the first place. This left an irritable Kushina who was currently attempting to run up one of the trees and using a variety of swear words that could make a sailor blush.

Eventually, Naruto had a brainwave, "ne, Kushina-chan, stop for a second, I have an idea. Hizashi, use your Byakugan to guide Kushina-chan in how much chakra she needs." Hizashi never moved from his spot in one of the higher branches, 15 metres above the ground but his voice came drifting down as Kushina gathered chakra, "more, more, alright less, a little bit more. Ok, try that amount."

After she received the go-ahead from Hizashi, Kushina charged up the tree. This time instead of making it up six steps before she shot off or slipped, she made it all the way up to Naruto who was sitting on a branch 10 metres off the ground. As she reached Naruto's branch, she began to slip slightly when Naruto simply grabbed her right upper-arm and hauled her up to sit on his lap.

As she landed, Kushina laughed in the satisfaction of finally making it up the tree. Naruto simply smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist to keep her from falling off and said, "Really well done, Kushina-chan. It took me five days to get it right; then again I didn't have the help of a Hyuuga so you kinda cheated." Her reply was to turn to face him and cutely stick out her tongue at him.

Suddenly a voice floated up at them, "alright you two lovebirds, I know teenage hormones are hard to control but exercise some self-control, Hizashi you come down too; we're going to the hospital to meet with another team and prepare the medical kits for transportation to the front at our camps in Kusagakure."

After some spluttering, Team Sakumo headed off to the hospital. As they passed the Hokage Tower, they met up with Team Jiraiya. After meeting, Naruto asked, "Jiraiya-sensei, after the mission, can you help me and Kushina-chan with something?" Blinking at the blonde, Jiraiya replied, "sure gaki, hey, aren't you the other Namikaze, the one Minato-gaki always talks about?"

* * *

Despite his growing tic mark at being constantly referred to as "gaki", Naruto's reply was controlled and held no indication of his growing annoyance, "yes I am the second Namikaze in Konoha other than Minato-nii-san, although I didn't know he talked about me." A red-faced Minato attempted to interrupt, "oi, Jiraiya-sensei, I don't "always talk about" Naruto-nii-san."

Jiraiya looked from Naruto's bemused face to Minato's red one and burst out laughing, "'course you do gaki, whenever we train you always ask me if we can train with "Naruto-nii-san" or if I'll teach you how to do the Kage Bunshin like "Naruto-nii-san"." Sporting a sly grin, Naruto sidled up next to Minato and replied, "Oho? I didn't know you looked up to me so much."

Spluttering in indignation, Minato replied, "B-baka! I just wanted to learn the Kage Bunshin. After all, when you use it in out spars it's pretty unfair. So I thought it'll be fairer if I can do it too." As the two Namikazes bickered and teased each other as they walked towards the hospital, Kushina and Mikoto watched with an ever-growing sweatdrop at Naruto and Minato's argument that was growing in childishness. Hizashi simply rolled his all-seeing eyes and took it in stride while Fugaku looked like he was going to commit murder soon.

Sakumo and Jiraiya were walking behind the Gennin, both sporting similar amused expressions at their antics. After some time, Sakumo turned to Jiraiya, now sporting a serious expression which Jiraiya mirrored when he realised the gravity of their oncoming conversation, "Jiraiya, I'm going to nominate Naruto-kun and Kushina-chan for Chunin soon. I know you intend to do the same thing for Minato, so when Sandaime-sama holds the Chunin selections in three weeks they can form a team."

If Jiraiya was shocked that Sakumo's students were so advanced he didn't let it show on his face, "Alright, but tell me, what makes you think that they can keep up with more experienced Gennin? Minato will be fine, he knows several Fuuton jutsu, but I'm not so sure about your students."

Sakumo turned to look at Naruto and Minato getting smacked on the back of their heads by Kushina and Mikoto before answering without turning back to Jiraiya, "Jiraiya, I asked Naruto and Kushina about their skills earlier today. They both are at level 2 of their Fuinjutsu mastery, and have mastered their primary elements. Kushina can use several C-ranked Suiton jutsu as well as the Kage Bunshin; Naruto knows the Kage Bunshin as well as several Katon and Fuuton jutsu, he was the one to teach Minato Fuuton jutsu and is working with him to develop the Hummingbird Style."

As Sakumo was still watching a sheepish Naruto and Minato, he missed the incredulous look on Jiraiya's face as he continued, "Both of them also have the strategic mind for Chunin and their excellent use of the Kage Bunshin along with their enormous chakra and stamina reserves make them Chunin level easily. Naruto's reflexes are incredible. When I Kawirimi-ed with one of his Bunshins when we sparred, another Bunshin saw me doing it and dispelled; he processed the information and Kawirimi-ed with another Bunshin before drawing a kunai and placing at my neck. What's more, he did it so fast I didn't even notice."

Jiraiya looked stoned as he replied, "Minato did the same thing, when I tried to attack him; he Kawirimi-ed with a log rigged with explosives and kicked me into it. Had I been a Chunin or even a rookie-Jounin I would be dead."

Jiraiya shook his head before softly chuckling, "well, I believe that they can pass the exams now. More than likely if we put them on the same team they'll destroy everyone else."

By this time they had already reached the hospital entrance, Sakumo shot Jiraiya a predatory grin before walking inside to guide the Gennin. Despite his lack of response, Jiraiya interpreted the grin easily. _'He intends to show the others that our team is made out of prodigies, typical Sakumo. Ah well, it'll get them onto the field sooner. Besides, I'm sure he's as bored as I am, being stuck on D-ranks at our level.'_

Finishing his thoughts, Jiraiya managed to turn the knob of the door to Tsunade's office before seeing an irate Tsunade throwing a medical kit at Fugaku's forehead. Unfortunately, due to Tsunade's strength, and the fact that Fugaku was still a child and so did not weigh much; the kit hit Fugaku and launched him backwards, causing Fugaku to collide with Jiraiya and send them both out of her office and onto the wall of the corridor.

Moaning in pain, Jiraiya was treated to a sight of a busty blonde strangling Fugaku who rapidly resembled a blueberry. Said blonde was wearing dark red or maroon skirt that went to her lower thighs. She also wore a white V-neck T-shirt that showed her collarbone which ended where her ribcage did. She wore a fishnet piece that covered her stomach and ended at her knees. She also wore a blue haori with the character "heal" on the back. Her strawberry blonde hair was tied into two low pigtails.

Sweatdropping at his teammate's antics, Jiraiya attempted to diffuse the current situation by tapping Tsunade lightly on the shoulder and saying, "Um, Tsunade-hime, would you kindly stop strangling my student?"

Turning to face Jiraiya, the poor man was treated to an incredibly potent KI that would make even the Hokage sweat. Cracking her knuckles ominously, Tsunade said in a deceptively calm voice, "**so, this little gaki is your student, ****_Jiraiya,_**** I would've thought that you taught him manners. But since he's your student, I suppose I should punish you for his actions.**"

* * *

With that, Tsunade was about to begin pounding Jiraiya when she was interrupted by a cough, "um, Tsunade-hime, despite what you're about to do being very entertaining, first and foremost we have a mission here; second, um, you're kinda straddling Jiraiya-sensei."

At the first point, Tsunade lowered her raised fist from Jiraiya and scrambled off him at the second point, her face aflame. After taking a deep breath to force her blush down, Tsunade turned around and walked back into here office where the Gennin and a smirking Sakumo were waiting.

Facing the Gennin, Tsunade had a pretty good idea of who bailed Jiraiya out since the redhead looked like she was about to explode due to keeping her laughter reined in, the Hyuuga was as impassive as per normal, the other Uchiha also had a similar impassive expression but her eyes said that she enjoyed the beating Tsunade gave Fugaku, and the blondes, well the two blondes had identical expressions; their left eyebrow slightly arched with laughter in their sky-blue eyes and the same infuriatingly knowing smirks on their faces.

Rubbing her temples furiously to ease the oncoming headache when she thought about the teasing she was going to get in the Jounin lounge, especially since Sakumo already saw; the man looked nice and warm but he had a pranking side and was a total sadist when it came to teasing and training.

Deciding that they had teased Tsunade enough, Sakumo reverted back from his smirk and teasing-mode to the serious-sensei mode. Clearing his throat to get Tsunade's attention, he spoke in a business-like tone, "Squad Sakumo and Squad Jiraiya reporting for a mission Tsunade-hime. Sandaime-sama told us we're going to have to pack the medical kits for transport to the camps near Kusa."

Silently thanking Kami that Sakumo chose to spare her the teasing for now, Tsunade nodded and motioned for them to follow her. Walking out of the doorway, Tsunade paused before asking one of the Gennin to carry an unconscious Fugaku. Kushina, who was the closest, looked behind her to Mikoto who looked to Minato who looked to Hizashi who looked to Naruto who turned around to look and found that there was no one behind him to pass the responsibility on to.

Sighing, Naruto grabbed Fugaku's right arm and slung it over his shoulders before following the others. They walked down the corridor to a room labelled "supplies", pushing the door open, Tsunade walked inside before turning around to face the others as they walked into the room.

The room itself was rather spacious, around 20 metres square. With white walls and tiles that were a pale peach colour on the floor. Towards the back of the room there were several floor to ceiling shelves that held a variety of objects, from boxes containing unknown items to bottles of liquid and pills to bandages and the like.

In the middle of the room there was a long wooden table that allowed 5 people on each side comfortably. On the table itself there were a stack of light grey boxes with yellow bands around the top and bottom. The boxes were as long as equipment pouches but half the width. Really it looked like a grey kunai holster but twice as wide.

* * *

On the back of each box were two slits for a belt or strap presumably.

As the Gennin along with their sensei filed into the room, Tsunade picked up one of the boxes and showed it to them, opening it; they saw that it had two main compartments inside. After they had seen it, Tsunade closed the box and put it back onto the stack before speaking, "what I just showed you are standard issue Konoha medical kits. You guys are going to fill them up with supplies for the medics on the front lines. Now then, I'm going to show you what to put inside," walking over to one of the shelves, Tsunade withdrew a brown box with around 50 or so maroon scrolls inside. She set it onto the table before walking to another shelf and took out another box, blue this time, with small glass bottles containing pills.

She also withdrew another green box with more bottles. After she put both boxes onto the table, Tsunade elaborated, "The brown box contains sealing scrolls that have rolls of bandages and disinfectant sealed inside. The blue box has bottles of soldier pills, they are used to replenish chakra and stamina but they taste like mud. The green box has bottles of plasma pills, they meant to replenish plasma lost through blood to help wounds clot faster, not used often, but they can help a medic if they want to allow the wound to heal naturally."

Pausing, Tsunade removed one bottle of each type of pill and a scroll before continuing, "you guys need to put the scroll into one compartment and the pills onto the other, remember that the soldier pills have to be above the plasma pills; you can tell the different because the soldier pills have a blue cap and the plasma pills have a green one."

As she gave them instructions she also demonstrated by filling a kit, after she was done, Tsunade set the finished kit back onto the table before telling them to keep filling them up until they ran out of either the components or the kit itself.

After she left, Sakumo settled himself onto one of the chairs at the table and said, "I'm going to catch up on some sleep, seeing as this mission obviously won't require my help, you guys are on your own." Jiraiya concurred and sat in one of the chairs with his feet rested on the table and started sharpening his kunai and shuriken.

Grumbling about lazy-ass sensei, Naruto and Kushina got to work. Minato and Mikoto shared a knowing look at Naruto and Kushina sitting close to one another before starting themselves, oblivious that they were doing the same thing. Hizashi just sat down and began without commenting. Fugaku had, by this time, woken up and began complaining about bitchy blondes using the "superior Uchiha" for menial labour which promoted death glares from the two Namikazes, an annoyed one from his fellow clansmen and the Uzumaki heiress, an impassive on from the Hyuuga and Hatake, and a stern look from Jiraiya.

Seeing the look Jiraiya gave him, Fugaku sat down and began packing; the fact Jiraiya was sharpening a kunai as he shot Fugaku a look that blatantly said: "You do it and do it know," more than likely helped quell any rebellious thoughts.

* * *

Several hours later, a squad and a half of thoroughly annoyed Gennin stormed out of the hospital, being waved away by a grinning Tsunade. The reason she was grinning, well the reason she would tell people anyway, was that she was happy that the Gennin were so efficient at their mission. That being said, she would usually discreetly hide her now empty Sake bottles in her table drawer before answering.

Back at the storage room, Naruto finished stacking the last of the medical kits, Kushina was talking with Sakumo and Jiraiya was...well he fell asleep on the table an hour into the packing. As he finished, he shot a glance at Kushina and nodded, when he received another in turn he yawned and said, "Done, Sakumo-sensei."

Sakumo paused his discussion with Kushina about jutsu theory and saw the solid cube of medical kits next to Naruto, which was taller than he was, but considering Naruto was 12 and the kits were for around a thousand over medics at the front lines, it was not all that surprising that the cube was large.

Shooting Naruto an all-too familiar eye-smile, Sakumo replied, "well done, Naruto-kun. Now then, we're done for the day. I've already sent Minato-kun to deliver your payments at your apartment. So we can go home."

Nodding his agreement, Naruto raised his arm and used his thumb to point at the snoring Jiraiya behind him and said, "You go ahead, Sakumo-sensei. Kushina-chan and I want to ask Jiraiya-sensei about some Fuinjutsu topics."

Silently impressed by Naruto and Kushina's dedication to learning, as well as their interest in Fuinjutsu which was considered a dead-end study by most ninja, Sakumo nodded and left without another word.

Once Sakumo left and closed the door behind him, Naruto walked over to the snoring Sannin and non-too gently jabbed him in the solar plexus. Despite the jab rather obviously not having hurt the Sannin in any way due to the metal plate he wore, Naruto found himself grabbed by the throat had a kunai held to his jugular vein faster than it took him to twitch a finger.

Upon realising who it was he nearly killed, Jiraiya dropped Naruto like a hot coal, the boy landing on his feet with an accusing stare at Jiraiya who simply chuckled sheepishly. Dusting himself off with one hand and rubbing the spot where the kunai had been with the other, Naruto looked pointedly at Jiraiya and said, "The hell, Jiraiya-sensei! We're at Konoha not at the front lines!"

* * *

Rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, Jiraiya replied, "Hehe, sorry Gaki," his gaze hardened before continuing, "but you should not have done that, some other, more wound up shinobi would have killed you. I'm already relaxed, that was just a bit of instinct, but other shinobi might not have hesitated like I did and would've slit your throat."

Still rubbing his throat, Naruto shuddered, "touché." Kushina decided to get to the point of their visit, "anyway, Jiraiya-sensei, we didn't seek you out for a social visit, we want to know something." His eyebrows rising in interest, Jiraiya replied, "Oh? And what would that be?"

By this time, Naruto had recovered and answered first, "Kushina-chan's Kyuubi seal."

Slowly, Jiraiya dropped his kunai, falling almost in slow motion; when it hit the ground and buried it's tip into the tile, he spoke, or rather exploded would be the correct term, "WHAT THE HELL?! HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HER STATUS AS A JIN-mrgh!"

Seeing Jiraiya's accusing look, Naruto sighed and said, "While it's nice seeing you flustered, sensei, both Kushina-chan and I would rather you **not** announce her _condition_ to the whole hospital and judging by the volume of your voice, half of Konoha."

Satisfied that Jiraiya would no longer scream Kushina's secret to half of Konoha, Naruto removed his hand from his mouth to let him speak. Rotating his jaw slightly, Jiraiya replied, "that's one hell of a grip you got there gaki, anyway, how in the nine layers of Makai do you know about Kushina's seal?"

Shooting him a deadpan look, Naruto gave a small almost undetectable smile to Kushina that, being the Sannin that he was, Jiraiya detected, "Kushina-chan is my best friend, more so than Minato-nii-san who as you can obviously tell I consider a brother. You really didn't think I could have that kind of relationship with her for the better part of four years without knowing did you?"

Jiraiya knew the look Naruto sent Kushina; it was the very same look he sent to Tsunade in their teenage years, unfortunately for him Tsunade had a lover currently and was absolutely smitten with him, a Jounin by the name of Kato Dan. However unlike Tsunade, Kushina returned his look after he turned back to Jiraiya.

Deciding to leave his teasing of the two to later, Jiraiya took out a piece of paper with kanji on it in the shape of a hollow six-pointed star and slapped it onto the table, immediately the kanji on the paper expanded slightly so that the edges of the star went slightly out of the paper and onto the desk itself.

A transparent barrier expanded from the star points and enveloped the inside of the room. Naruto decided to pause his questions and looked closely at the seal, despite being a relative novice to Fuinjutsu; Naruto recognised the kanji for "silence", "barrier", and "internal" on the jutsu shiki. The barrier itself was similarly fascinating, Kushina marvelled at the barrier while Naruto looked at the seal.

The barrier itself was completely clear, but was glowing ever so slightly and undulated similar to the surface of water. Without looking up from the seal, Naruto voiced their question, "this seal, it's a privacy seal, isn't it?"

* * *

Impressed, Jiraiya decided to indulge him, "yes it is, but it's a high levelled one. I'm impressed you recognised it. How did you know?" Still examining the paper, Naruto replied, "I recognise the kanji for "silence" and "barrier", also it has the kanji for "internal" so I assume that we can hear people outside the room but they can't hear us? Also..."

This time Kushina spoke up, "also the barrier itself is undulating, meaning that it has to do with sound, the undulations help absorb the sound vibrations from our speech so nobody will hear it. Interesting, it is also a very strong barrier, as you said, from the glowing."

Now visibly impressed by the two Gennin, Jiraiya replied, "Yeah, anyway, what about Kushina's seal do you want to know?" This made Naruto finally look up from the seal and Kushina to walk over to where Naruto was standing to face Jiraiya in all seriousness.

Naruto shot a glance at Kushina and, receiving a nod in turn, voiced their question, "we want to know information about the seal, if it'll will or has weakened and if we need to adjust it." Raising an eyebrow at their question, Jiraiya walked over to the table and pushed the cube of medical kits from the middle of the table to the floor before gesturing for Kushina to lie on the table.

Looking at Naruto for confirmation and receiving another nod, Kushina walked over and lay on the table. Once she did so, Jiraiya took out a storage scroll from his equipment pouch and unsealed a small ink well and a brush, as he did so he said, "Kushina, seeing as I will need to see your seal, you need to undo your kimono blouse."

* * *

Seeing Kushina's horror and growing blush, Naruto sighed before saying in a tender voice, "Kushina-chan, if you want Jiraiya-sensei to look at your seal you have to do this," seeing that he did nothing to calm her, he sighed before continuing, "you're wearing shorts under your blouse and if you want I can lend you my hoodie to put over your chest."

Receiving a nod from Kushina, Naruto shrugged out of his hoodie before turning around and motioning for her to undo her kimono. Checking that both of them had turned, Kushina untied her Obi and opened her kimono such that it was open but she still had it on and could quickly close it again. Satisfied, she said quietly, "ok, Naruto-kun can you hand me your hoodie?"

Naruto covered his eyes with one hand and used the other to stretch out his hoodie behind him which Kushina gratefully took. After she had draped his hoodie over her chest, Kushina informed them she was ready.

Once he received the go-ahead, Jiraiya turned around and frowned, "Kushina, the seal isn't visible, and I'm not overly sure what triggers it. Perhaps try moulding chakra?" At his suggestion, Kushina began directing chakra towards her hands and the seal appeared.

The seal itself was shaped oddly. Instead of the regular circular shaped structure, it was almost an oval shape. But its narrower curves were pointed making it look like an eye. Six branches of kanji, three on the top and bottom, looked like eyelashes and made the seal look almost eerily like an eye. To be precise, it looked as if the Kyuubi was giving Naruto and Jiraiya a single-eyed stare.

Tearing his gaze away from the seal, Naruto noticed the nervous look on Kushina's face and mentally berated himself. _'Baka! She's already uncomfortable about the seal and here I go staring at it.'_

* * *

Deciding to ease her worries, Naruto took Kushina's right hand with his and intertwined their fingers; sending the message to Kushina that he was alright with her seal. Jiraiya, meanwhile, was still observing the kanji and pattern of the seal.

Furrowing his brow, Jiraiya turned to look at Kushina and said, "The seal is flawed slightly. Because Mito-sama did not have the knowledge I do now, since at that time Fuinjutsu was still a new practice, some aspects of the seal is flawed. For one, due to the design of the seal, it has to be tightened periodically, around every five years or so. Also, because Mito-sama designed the seal to trap the Kyuubi, not harness its power; you will never be able to control more than five tails of power. Anymore and the seal will automatically seal the chakra away. However, because you're a girl, you are vulnerable to the aspect that all female Jinchurriki face: childbirth. If you go into labour, there is a chance the seal will fail. In this period of time, it is also easiest for someone else to force the seal open."

After he finished his observation, Jiraiya noted that Kushina looked decidedly worried, however after Naruto gave her hand a reassuring squeeze she calmed down. Crossing his arms, Jiraiya asked, "So, now that you know, what do you want to do now?"

Kushina looked at Jiraiya with steel resolve in her eyes, "tighten the seal." His eyebrow arching, Jiraiya responded, "it won't be pleasant, tightening the seal will feel like you're going through childbirth for half an hour. Although this is nothing compared to the amount of time childbirth takes normally, you are much younger. In fact, had you been anyone other than an Uzumaki, tightening the seal at your age would kill you from the stress on your body and the effects of the seal."

As Jiraiya finished his warning, Naruto looked decidedly concerned, understandable considering the circumstances. Although his worry seemed to lessen when Kushina squeezed his hand before replying unwaveringly, "tighten it."

* * *

At first, Jiraiya looked as if he was going to argue; his mouth opening slightly, before seemingly deciding against it and settled for a single nod. Walking over to the table, he took the brush he put out earlier and dipped it in ink before turning back to Kushina's seal.

As he began writing out the kanji for the seal, Jiraiya noticed that Kushina had craned her neck downwards to look at the seal and Naruto was simply staring at it in obvious curiosity. Continuing to write, Jiraiya started explaining, "What I'm doing currently is writing up a, well I suppose you could call it a "key". The key is designed to be linked to the lock in the seal itself, which is why I'm writing it in the middle of the seal. The reason the lock is in a spiral pattern is because the seal itself is also in a spiral pattern; not the formula but the actual seal that keeps the Kyuubi contained inside you, Kushina. Simply put it's like this: because the original lock is a spiral shaped, to tighten it I have to have a spiral shaped key. The advantages of having a spiral seal like Mito-sama designed are that it can be tightened and loosened, unlike most other seals which are either open or closed. Because the lock is spiral shaped, it is also harder to release the Bijuu inside you; unlike other locks when the formula is torn off from the cage in your mindscape and the Bijuu can simply escape, because the lock is a spiral it is self-sustaining."

Finishing his lecture, Jiraiya paused to check the key to make sure nothing was amiss; after he was satisfied he nodded to Naruto who nodded back and gripped Kushina's hand reassuringly. Turning to look at Kushina, Jiraiya noted the fear and apprehension in her eyes, but also the resolve and iron-will. Squaring his shoulders, Jiraiya opened his right hand and faced the palm upwards; immediately five lavender flames appeared in his hand, one on each finger with the kanji for Tsuchi, Hi, Kaze, Mizu and Kaminari on them.

Looking Kushina in the eyes once more, he winced and said, "For what it is worth, I apologise for the pain this will cause. But since the barrier is up, you can scream all you want. **Gogyo Fuin." **With that, Jiraiya slammed his hand onto the seal he drew onto Kushina's pre-existing seal earlier and began turning his hand clockwise slowly, turning the spiral as well as tightening the seal.

Predictably, this caused Kushina to scream out in pain, Naruto was also in pain, but not from tightening the seal. Since he was still holing Kushina's hand when Jiraiya started tightening the seal, her hand automatically clenched to compensate for the pain she was experiencing; and since Naruto was holding her hand, this meant nearly breaking his hand, she would have broken it if not for him channelling Chakra into his hand at the last moment.

The scream Kushina let out was excruciatingly painful to hear, especially for Naruto who was trying his best to soothe Kushina by whispering words of encouragement into her ear and not cry out in pain, the former working but not so much the latter. As he continued to tighten the seal, Jiraiya idly noted that Naruto and Kushina truly reminded him of a couple going through childbirth; the woman lying down screaming in pain while the man sat by her side having his hand crushed and looking like he was about to pass out.

Half an hour later, a wincing Namikaze was seen cradling his abused hand close to his body while the Uzumaki heiress looked decidedly sheepish and slightly guilty. Jiraiya simply looked on as Naruto brushed away the tear tracks Kushina had left on her cheeks with his uninjured hand and lovingly kissed her forehead, either oblivious to or simply not caring about the deep blush that she now sported. Coughing softly to get their attention, Jiraiya shot Naruto a knowing smile before saying, "now then, did you two need anything else? If not then I'll be going, it's almost time for dinner and Tsunade and I are going to Orochimaru's place."

* * *

Being the Sannin that he was, Jiraiya noticed the slight narrowing of Naruto's eyes at the mention of Orochimaru but could not place the emotion in them. His concerns about Naruto's relationship with Orochimaru were put to the back of his mind when Naruto replied, "I want to learn Fuinjutsu from you, Jiraiya-sensei," even more so when Kushina added, "me too."

His right eyebrow rising in interest, Jiraiya hummed thoughtfully before saying, "why would you two want to learn from me, I'm flattered but you guys already have a sensei." Naruto immediately replied, "Because I want to be able to tighten or make adjustments to the seal in the future in case you're...unavailable. I also have an idea for a jutsu I want to make but I need extensive Fuinjutsu knowledge to even attempt to make it."

Kushina added her own reason as she put on her blouse again while Naruto looked away and Jiraiya tried his best not to look, "I want to learn because as an Uzumaki I'm good at seals naturally, and since there are no more Uzumaki to my knowledge, you're the next best thing. I also want to design a more efficient seal to use on my successor as the Jinchurriki for the Kyuubi, so obviously I need to be well-versed in Fuinjutsu to even try."

Mentally smirking at their just reasons for wanting to learn, Jiraiya simply settled for, "alright then, every day you two do not have missions, meet me at training ground 6 at four 'o clock. You two will be practicing along with Minato-kun, he also wants to learn Fuinjutsu. Now run along, I can hear Tsunade's Chazuke calling me." With that, Jiraiya removed the privacy seal from the table and disappeared in a shunshin.

* * *

**A/N: Done! This particular chapter is a bit slow but it shows insight for the team dynamics and also how I'm going to give an excuse for Naruto to learn Fuinjutsu and make his own jutsu.**

**Translations: Chazuke: Chazuke, or ochazuke, consists of hot water, tea, or light fish stock poured over rice (sometimes made with leftover rice). Chazuke is often garnished with toppings such as umeboshi, grilled salmon, or pickles.**

**I apologise for the lack of action in the chapter but it was necessary to further the plot. I categorise the types of chapters I write: action, relationship, plot and misc. They're self-explanatory. So predictably plot-focused chapters like this one are meant to further the plot and create immersion (hopefully) by fleshing out the world. Once again I apologise for the lack of action. Next chapter will be their first C-rank, and you know Naruto's history with C-ranks. So predictably it'll be an action chapter, hopefully.**

***If you don't know what I'm talking/writing about, it's the place where Kakashi had the bell test in. **


	5. Chapter 3: First C-Rank

**A/N: I would like to sincerely apologise for the lateness of this chapter but in my defence I do have valid reasons. First, I wrote it during and the week before Christmas so I had relatives coming over and didn't have time to write during the day so I could squeeze in maybe two hours a night.**

**Secondly there were scenes in this chapter that took me a really long time to figure out and write because they are (to my knowledge) completely original and so took some time to write and plan.**

**Lastly, I DID have this chapter and was writing it two weeks before Christmas but my computer crashed and I lost my data so I had to re-write it, which is why my next chapter MAY be a bit late. **

* * *

**Chapter 3: A case of Déjà vu **

Sitting against one of the stumps at their usual training ground, Naruto Namikaze reflected on how Gennin life was going. He and Kushina had just started training with Jiraiya the perverted Toad Sannin five days ago and it was fun. The seals that Jiraiya taught them were interesting to experiment with, although Kushina managed to rope Naruto and Minato into pranking the ANBU with their new seals; well, more so Minato, Naruto was all for it.

Needless to say they spent the whole of the next day getting chased by ANBU members with their uniforms dyed with neon colours. They also made the uniforms more…form fitting, especially the kunoichi as a birthday present to Jiraiya; he had to be admitted to the hospital for blood loss.

* * *

Speaking of Kushina, she was doing her morning stretches behind Naruto who was staring at the river and doing his best not to think about the way her body moved while she stretched. Kushina's stretches were actually a routine that she and Mikoto came up with together, the stretches they did made use of their natural flexibility and feline-like grace.

The effect this had on the male population was to be expected. In fact, when Hizashi first saw Kushina doing her stretches, he activated his Byakugan. Naruto spent the rest of the day chasing him with his knives. Actually, while doing so, he ran into Minato who was chasing Fugaku for doing the same thing to Mikoto with his Sharingan.

* * *

The Hyuuga were closet perverts, who knew? But then again, with all-seeing eyes that have no set range, it's not actually that surprising, more of the fact that so many Hyuuga have ten foot long spiked poles up their asses and still do it. Tsume actually chased Hiashi all over Konoha in her Gatsuuga form when she caught him peeping once, Naruto, Kushina and Minato nearly suffocated from laughter.

So the reason Naruto was facing the opposite way when Kushina stretches was to give her privacy and to prevent _problems _from _arising_. Damn teenage hormones, Minato had the same problem; but neither Kushina nor Mikoto had a problem with their respective partners watching, something that confused the poor Namikaze brothers to no end.

Either way to respect her space, Naruto refrained from watching. As he watched the river, Naruto began playing with his stiletto knife, remembering how he got them.

* * *

_==========================Flashback=============================_

_Walking into the Wolf's Claw, the shinobi weapons store, Naruto and Kushina were greeted by the sight of enough weapons to probably coat the whole of Konoha and have more left over. As they browsed the isles, Naruto noticed the immense variety of weapons, from senbon to kurasigama to zanbato. As he browsed, Naruto noticed that in the section for projectile weapons, he found an odd looking knife, with a thin blade and a sharp point._

_Decidedly curious, Naruto decided to bring the odd knife to the counter. Reaching the counter, he was greeted by the sight of a man whose bicep muscles were bigger than Naruto's head. The man wore a brown sleeveless leather vest that was open so it showed his torso. His lower body was hidden by the counter but Naruto could see the top of the man's pants, they were white but covered with streaks of soot and had small scorch marks on them. He had brown-ish-black hair that he tied into a rat's tail._

_Holding up the knife by the blade, Naruto offered it to the man and said, "um, would you mind telling me about this knife um…" Noticing that the boy did not know his name, the man decided to reply, his voice was deep but held a gentle tone to it, "name's Higurashi Kai, 'm the owner and blacksmith of the Wolf's Claw. An' as an answer to your question, the knife you're using is called a stiletto, it's meant to be a knife for stabbing or throwing._

_Actually, because of the design of the blade, the stiletto has more piercing power than a kunai. Because the stiletto's blade is thin and sharp, it has better penetration and can be thrown further than a kunai since its lighter. But for close combat a kunai is better since it's more resistant to force 'cause its blade is thicker. Also, for setting traps, the kunai is better, 'cause of the ring at the end to tie wire to it and for its weight so the trap can hold itself together better."_

* * *

_Humming in thought, the blonde weighed the knife in his hand to get a feel for it. Seemingly decided, he turned from looking at the knife to the owner, "how much Higuashi-san?" The brunette placed his right hand under his chin and hummed in thought, after a moment he gave Naruto a quick once-over and decided, "100 ryo for 2 sets, that's half the price of a kunai set."_

_Smiling, Naruto immediately replied, "gimme 6 sets then, Higurashi-san."_

_=========================flashback end===========================_

* * *

At first, it was slightly awkward to use the knives, since Naruto was more used to the weight and size of kunai; this caused accidents. Like when Hizashi was staring at Kushina stretching, one of Naruto's knives managed to find itself heading straight at his hair tie, once Naruto retrieved it and apologized, he noticed Sakumo giving him a strange look. It was an accident, honest!

Shoving his thoughts aside, Naruto got up from the stump in time to see Kushina doing a split. Counting to 5 in his mind to steady himself and get rid of his blood and _other_ problem; the former working, the latter…not so much. Thanking Kami that he had the foresight to wear baggy pants as his shinobi attire, Naruto decided to interrupt and tapped Kushina as she was getting ready for another stretch.

"Ne, Kushina-chan, maybe you should stop for now? Hizashi and Sakumo-sensei will be here soon," he said. Nodding, Kushina straightened and unsealed a bottle of water from a scroll she kept in her equipment pouch. As he watched for Sakumo and Hizashi, Naruto recalled the lessons they had with Jiraiya over the past 5 days.

Apparently, he had an aptitude for Fuinjutsu, not so much as Kushina but being an Uzumaki; it wasn't all that surprising when Jiraiya took a look at a seal she had been working on and openly declared that if she had the experience he had, she could surpass him easily. Naruto's skills were advanced enough to be considered a Fuinjutsu prodigy, along with Minato but to a lesser extent.

* * *

Around ten or so minutes later, Team Sakumo met over by the memorial stone where Sakumo was hunched over in prayer, presumably for those killed in the current Second Shinobi war.

A superstition was associated with the memorial stone, for civilians, they thought that praying and giving respects to it would bring them good luck; in both their businesses and in their day to day lives. Shinobi came to pay respects for those precious to them who they lost in the line of duty, and also for protection when they were sent to the front lines.

Straightening from his prayer, Sakumo turned to face his Gennin before giving them an eerily familiar eye-smile and began to relay instructions for their mission as per normal, "right then, today we're going to be doing something different. As I'm sure you're all aware, every two weeks or so, the Gennin teams have to do a supply run from here to one of the front lines; either in Ame or in Kusa. This week, it's our turn to do a run to Ame and Jiraiya's squad's turn to do the run to Kusa.

We have a week to get to the front lines in Ame, across Hi no Kuni. Now, normally this would be hard for Gennin teams to accomplish; however, seeing as Naruto and Kushina have been learning fuinjutsu from Jiraiya, we can just seal the supplies into scrolls and transport it that way.

Seeing as we need to prepare, Naruto, Kushina, how long will it take you two to seal around 500kg worth of medical kits and ninja equipment?"

Humming in thought, Naruto turned to look at Kushina next to him before saying, "around an hour, Sakumo-sensei. 45 minutes to prepare the seals and another 15 minutes to seal everything into the scrolls."

Nodding, Sakumo turned to Hizashi and asked, "How long will it take to inform the Hyuuga council about our mission?" Closing his eyes, Hizashi seemingly calculated for a moment and replied, "half an hour or so, sensei."

Pausing for a moment, Sakumo decided to have a peek at the clouds above their heads for a bit before continuing, "Alright, meet back here in 1 and a half hours, that should give you guys' time to do what you need to do as well as pack. Naruto, Kushina, the supplies are at the Hokage tower, just tell the Chunnin guards our squad name and our mission and they should let you in."

* * *

Several hours later, Sakumo was leaping through the trees that covered a majority of Hi no Kuni in a vast and thick blanket of green. As he did so, he reflected on the sight of his Gennin team when he came to pick them up after the pre-set hour and a half.

_=======================Flashaback===============================_

_As he walked back into the training ground, Sakumo was greeted by a curious sight. It appeared to be several identical copies of his prized students running around while carry loads of assorted Shinobi equipment. Kunai, shuriken, exploding tags, medical kits, extra uniforms, a strange box of assorted pills and liquids of varying colour and size, as well as food, bandages and the like._

_The copies seemed to be unloading the loads onto selected areas of scrolls, which were then sealed inside. Overall, a strange sight to any civilian, enough to make them go for a psychological test at the hospital; Sakumo however, took it in stride and plopped down next to his third and final student._

_As he sat, watching the amusing sight of several Bunshin staggering around with their loads, Sakumo decided to check on the attire of his students._

* * *

_Naruto wore the navy-blue long-sleeved shirt he always wore with a red stripe running down the sleeves. Only now instead of being rolled up just below his elbows, they were tucked into forest-green armguards. Said armguards were made out of the same reinforced fabric as the armour the ANBU wore. They also had a burnt orange trim. The armguards also had symbols on them, the symbol for the destroyed Uzushiogakure on the portion nearer to his elbows and an isosceles triangle on the portion nearer to his wrists that was burnt orange in colour with a line of the same burnt orange connecting the two symbols._

_The symbol of Uzushiogakure was the same one that Konohagakure had on the back of their Chunnin and Jounin vests, only instead of the circle being red and the spiral being black, the circle was white and the spiral was red._

_Naruto's Hitai-ate was secured on his forehead as per usual. He also wore long ANBU-style shinobi pants that were a dark sapphire blue or light black in colour with two red stripes on the sides, the ends of the pants legs were secured by white medical tape that was tucked into his blue shinobi sandals._

_Naruto also wore black combat gloves with their fingers open that were tucked into his armguards like the sleeves of his shirt were. The combat gloves had a metal plating on the back of them._

* * *

_Kushina kept her usual look in her beige kimono-style shirt that had black stitching on the edges with a fishnet undershirt. She also wore her normal shorts and stockings along with black shinobi sandals. The thing she changed was the gloves she wore, like Naruto's they were fingerless and jet black in colour. _

_Unlike Naruto's, hers lacked the metal plating at the back, however on closer inspection; Sakumo noticed that the palm of her gloves were more padded than normal but only slightly._

_Hizashi did not change his outfit at all. He wore a white, long-sleeved shirt that was secured by a button around the area of his heart, with matching white pants in the style most ANBU wore. He also wore a dull brown apron that was open at the front over his pants and had his Hitai-ate secured on his forehead to hide his Caged Bird Seal. He wore his hair with chin-length bangs to frame his face and the rest going down his back where it was secured by a hair tie near the middle of his back.*_

_===================Flashback End=================================_

* * *

Coming out of his thought, Sakumo decided to check on how his Gennin were doing.

Hizashi was scanning their surroundings with his Byakugan on a five minute interval, Kushina had her hand in a half-ram seal and her eyes were closed, signifying the usage of her sensor skills.

The one who did not seem to be participating was Naruto who appeared not to be doing anything, however, Sakumo knew from experience in their spars that Naruto always had Kage Bunshin watching his blind spots; ready to dispel at a moment's notice and send information back to the original. So, naturally, Sakumo expected that Naruto was doing the same thing as they travelled.

Smiling, he noted to himself, _'well, they sure don't need my help. But considering the situation we're in, I should keep an eye out anyway. So, we've been travelling for around half a day now, so at our current pace we should be able to reach Tanzaku Gai in two days, then from there we'll head north-west and reach the border of Ame in another three days, two days ahead of schedule._

_That would give us two days rest time and another week trip back. So we'll have two days of rest before the Chunnin exams. I just hope Hizashi isn't too upset that he won't be participating, while he has the battle capabilities of a Chunnin, he doesn't have the mentality to lead a squad. Naruto and Kushina do, and from what Jiraiya tells me, Minato does as well.'_

* * *

Satisfied with his thoughts, Sakumo decided to focus on the task at hand and sped off towards Tanzaku Gai.

Three days later, Naruto was sitting on one of the branches of the trees around their camp, west of Tanzaku Gai. He sat facing the river beside their camp. Despite looking to be alert, Naruto's thoughts were on other subjects; namely the relationship between himself and a certain Habanero.

After a few minutes, it began to rain. Naruto himself did not think much of the rain itself, more so on Sakumo's instructions as the left Tanzaku Gai.

_==========================Flashback======================_

_As they prepared to leave the inn where they stayed on the third night, Naruto was flitting around the two rooms that they rented for the night; Kushina's room and the room that he, Hizashi and Sakumo shared, preparing everything. Not so much packing their clothes, since even though this was their first mission outside the village they were not so foolish as to unpack, but more of having to seal and distribute the different foodstuffs they bought around Tanzaku Gai; since having to write up the seals, seal everything and making sure everyone knew where everything was takes more time than one might expect._

_As he bustled around their two rooms, Naruto bumped into Sakumo, or rather Sakumo bumped into him. As he strode past, Sakumo held out his arm to catch Naruto on the shoulder as he passed; leaning down Sakumo whispered into Naruto's ear, "Naruto, I get the feeling that this mission might not be as boring as we first thought. While we made camp during the first night and I went scouting for food, I noticed certain markings on some of the branches in the trees; more specifically, the imprints made by ninja when we channel chakra into our feet to jump long distances. And there was only one set of imprints, meaning that it couldn't be Konoha Shinobi, since we always travel in pairs at the very least. And we haven't had any Suna shinobi movements this far North, so the only one left is..."_

* * *

_His eyes narrowing in suspicion, Naruto finished for him, "Ame, a scout, preparing an ambush. But Jiraiya-sensei's spy network gave him no warning that Ame had spies within Konoha, meaning that if it is Ame, then there's a mole _inside_ Konoha; someone high seated, since only the council, the Hokage and the teams themselves know of the nature of any mission above D-rank. So it's either the Hokage which makes no sense or...a council member."_

_Nodding gravely, Sakumo took a deep breath before replying, "my suspicions exactly." Shooting a nervous glance at the nightwear-clad form of Hizashi who was checking his equipment and another at the wall that connected their room to Kushina's where she was no doubt doing the same thing as Hizashi, Naruto lowered his voice and spoke in a hissing whisper, "so, what do we do about it, sensei? Tell Kushina-chan and Hizashi?"_

_Shaking his head, Sakumo replied in a low voice, "No, tell them nothing for now. These are subjects that could either save lives or have us executed for treason, no need to involve them unnecessarily; but if they find out themselves and approach us, then we can tell them. For now, just keep a lookout, Ame shinobi are veterans in guerrilla warfare; their Suiton jutsu are highly destructive and they use them well. But their main giveaway is..."_

_======================Flashback End=========================_

* * *

"...rain," wordlessly, Naruto bolted back to camp, already dreading what he might find. Ame shinobi were notorious for silent kills with their suiton jutsu, especially the **Suiro no Jutsu** which they used to immobilise and suffocate their targets. Rapidly attempting to squash the images of the consequences should he fail to arrive in time. The most common fate to befall captured Kunoichi is rape, the slow, painful end; being used by enemy shinobi, often more than one at a time, before being left to die from your wounds once they were done.

As he approached the camp, now soaking wet and utterly terrified for his comrades, Naruto was treated to the sight he dreaded. Five Ame shinobi were standing in the clearing, three of whom were holding his teammates prisoner in their distinctive **Suiro no Jutsu**. They all wore the regular beige-coloured wetsuits that most Ame shinobi wore with bandages around their wrists and lower legs along with single-valve face masks; their grey flak jackets with the distinctive swirls on the chest plate gave them away as being Chunnin and above.

As he saw them, they also saw him and the two who weren't holding the Water prisons immediately engaged him. Dodging some Shuriken from one of them, Naruto cursed the fact that because of the rain, he couldn't use Katon Jutsu; he was outnumbered and facing opponents more experienced than him and they had his team hostage.

Responding with his own Shuriken, Naruto used the time they took to dodge and formed a familiar cross seal, whispering, "**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**," under his breath. Immediately, five clones appeared next to him. Knowing that his best bet was to separate the two ninja, he sent three to deal with one of them while Naruto and the two other clones engaged the other.

* * *

As Naruto engaged the two ninja, Kushina noticed that the ninja holding her water prison had gotten distracted by the fight and started to concentrate her chakra into tendrils around her back area. Dodging a water bullet from the shinobi he was fighting, the original Naruto cursed since his clones hadn't lasted long against the two ninja.

The really annoying thing was that the only Fuuton jutsu he knew, other than the Rasenshuriken, was the Daioppa and the Renkudan. The former didn't do anything except push his opponent back and the latter was easily avoided or simply countered with a Suiton jutsu. Other than that, Naruto could use the Rasengan, but would need to get into point-blank range to use it, the wind version with the same issue, the Rasenshuriken which would cause him to black out from chakra exhaustion; shadow clones which didn't do anything, and the Kawarimi and Henge which wouldn't help.

Cursing his luck, Naruto received the information from the final clone battling the other shinobi. It seemed that the other shinobi was a mid to long range fighter and was extremely proficient with Suiton ninjutsu while the one he was fighting was better at taijutsu. Meaning that if they double-teamed him he was oh so royally screwed.

* * *

The only thing he could really do was try to overwhelm them with a mixture of shadow clones and Fuuton ninjutsu, and while that might work, he would be too drained to properly free the rest of his teammates. Sighing, Naruto resigned himself to that tactic and, in a similar fashion to his tactics when he was a Gennin wearing kill-me orange; formed the cross seal and shouted, "**Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**!"

Immediately, the clearing where they set camp was filled with clones, granted not as many as he could have made but then nobody would be able to breathe let alone fight. Ignoring the incredulous looks the Ame ninja and his teammates, sans Kushina, Naruto immediately began bombarding his opponents with a mixture of Fuuton ninjutsu and clones while they and their comrades created water clones to even the score slightly.

Avoiding a water bullet, the real Naruto threw one of his stiletto knives at the Ame nin who burst into water. Taking the time to survey the battlefield, Naruto cursed. The Ame nin were using next to no chakra for their jutsu because of the rain and he didn't have the limitless stamina he once had due to the lack of a certain fox sealed into him.

* * *

Noting that his best bet was to take out the one holding Sakumo, Naruto created another five clones to distract the nin that was standing between him and the one holding Sakumo. Just as the nin turned to fire a Suiton jutsu at his clones, Naruto bolted straight at the one holding the water prison. Just as he was about to bury a knife into the nin's back, he turned and whispered, "**Suiton: Teppodama.**"

"Fuck!"

Naruto could not do anything as the ball of water rushed at him with the velocity of a gunshot; while being the size of a soccer ball. Neither could he stop the shot from hitting him straight to the torso and going straight through. Seeing the boy's body toppling onto the grass, the Ame nin who fired the jutsu started to laugh before he began gurgling.

Sakumo looked from the Ame nin's slit throat, to his dead student lying in the grass and wondered how in the world that happened. As the nin fell onto the grass and released the jutsu, Sakumo heard Naruto sigh and say, "Kami, whoever invented Kawarimi I praise your brilliance." Sighing in relief, Sakumo allowed himself a chuckle before going off to try and release Hizashi.

As he prepared to charge back into the battle, Naruto started the signs for a jutsu before freezing, the cold sensation of a kunai resting on his jugular vein. Deciding to savour the moment, the ninja said, "You know, you've caused a lot of trouble for us. But at the end of the day, you're still just a Gennin."

* * *

Since he was facing Naruto's back, he didn't see the smirk Naruto wore, nor did he see the spearheaded-chain that impaled him in the back. Pushing the, now obviously, dead nin off his back; Naruto saw Kushina facing him with her right hand outstretched, a chain protruding from it which connected to the dead nin behind him and another from her left that impaled the ninja holding her in the head.

Pausing to give Kushina a heartfelt nod in thanks, Naruto turned to see one of the two ninja his clones were fighting get nailed head on by a wind bullet, literally. The other resembled a pincushion, learning to augment the Kunai Kage Bunshin no Jutsu with the Daioppa was really a stroke of genius on Jiraiya's part.

Huffing, Naruto sank to the ground against a tree as his clones dispelled, all five of the Ame nin who ambushed them were dead. Once the clones dispelled and Sakumo could see the five bodies, he turned to Hizashi and said, "Check for more." Walking towards Naruto, Sakumo patted him on the head and gave him an eerily familiar eye-smile before asking, "First kill?"

Naruto simply shook his head, he was panting too hard to speak. Hearing Naruto's reply, one of Sakumo's eyebrows twitched up slightly before dismissing it, they were in wartime after all. Settling for a curt nod, Sakumo was about to walk away before Naruto managed to catch his breath and ask, "Sakumo-sensei, do you think you can teach me how to use a tanto?

* * *

Now sufficiently puzzled, Sakumo turned back to glance at Naruto before speaking, almost as if he was speaking to himself, "What brought this on I wonder…" Slightly puzzled, Naruto relented, figuring that his request and actual timing of it was indeed strange and answered, "I'm not sure why I want to learn kenjutsu per say, I just figured that I needed I trump card for the upcoming Chunnin exams and I've been trying to pick it up for a while now. But I could never find a proper teacher, Higurashi-san told me that I should use a tanto, and you're the only tanto user I know."

Thinking on it for a second, Sakumo shrugged and replied in as an exasperated tone as he ever showed, "Well Naruto, you certainly do live up to your moniker in the Jounin lounge as the "most unpredictable ninja."" Sweatdropping, Naruto rubbed the nape of his neck and chuckled sheepishly. _'Well, at least the "knucklehead" part was dropped from the original version, at least it shows the difference between me currently and me when I was this age in my original timeline. That's good, I think.'_

Just as he was about to turn back to check on Hizashi who looked to be weak from asphyxiation, Sakumo paused and added, "We'll start the day after we get back. Unfortunately, you'll only get about half a week of training before the exams start; if there ends up being a preliminary then we can train some more in the month before the actual finals." With that, he went off to check on Hizashi.

* * *

Closing his eyes, Naruto allowed himself to indulge in a brief reprieve and closed his eyes and rested against the tree bark, the rain had faded into a drizzle once the justu caster was killed and now had stopped completely; the dew on the grass and trees giving everything a fresh and new look.

After a moment, he felt a weight rest on his left side, cracking open his eyes he immediately focused on the curtain of crimson blocking his vision. Looking up at the sky, Naruto spoke, very softly almost like he was thinking to himself rather than addressing anyone, "It's odd huh, that rain can be so refreshing and rejuvenating, yet so deadly and ominous."

Kushina made a noise akin to a thoughtful hum before going off on another topic entirely, "You know, I'm really happy that you showed up when you did. If you hadn't I'm not sure I would've been able to defeat those Ame nin myself."

For a moment, Naruto was silent before he answered, "You know, even if I'm not there, you're never alone. Or did you forget about the enormous Kitsune sealed into you with an equally if not more enormous ego. And anyways, you have most of my jutsu as I do yours, actually the rain would have helped you, even more so with the kitsune-teme boosting your affinities. Besides, you're not bound by stamina or chakra capacity as I am."

Giggling, Kushina settled herself before replying, even so her tone held a noticeable undertone of mirth, "Well, she is being as uncooperative and mule-headed as you are somethimes, Naruto-kun. And even though I may have one of the strongest water affinities out there, somewhere between Nidaime-sama and a Sanbi vessel, but I haven't figured out how to work it where I can manipulate water with my thoughts and chakra alone since I still rely on handseals unlike you. And also unlike you I can't make smoke-less bunshin, I don't need handseals thankfully but mine still make smoke."

Frowning, Naruto was about to reply when the first part of her statement sunk in, "Oi! I am not mule-headed, or uncooperative!" Kushina wanted to reply but the incredulous look in Naruto's face was too much for her and she descended into a giggling fit. Pouting, Naruto said in mock-hurt, "you think so low of me? I'm wounded Kushina-chan." This of course, caused Kushina to giggle even harder, to the point where she almost turned blue. The reason being that Naruto's accusation was almost a complete copy of Jiraiya's when Tsunade called him pervert.

* * *

Of course unlike Jiraiya, Naruto did not go onto proclaim himself not a "mere pervert" but a "SUPER PERVERT" and get decked in the head by both Tsunade and Orochimaru when he was present. Chuckling to himself, Naruto recalled when Jiraiya tried to sell Dan, Tsunade's lover and rumoured fiancé photos of her he managed to get while she was "indecent", needless to say Tsunade got wind of it and nearly killed Jiraiya; this was after Dan bought some anyway, not that he'd tell her of course.

Frowning, Naruto recalled when he and Kushina entered her mind and they attempted to confront the Kyuubi and work out a deal.

* * *

_========================Flashback===============================_

_Arriving in Kushina's mind, Naruto exhaled in relief and said, "Man, am I glad that we made friends with Inoichi, even if he does look like a girl." Giggling, Kushina said nothing and instead focused on the sight before her. _

_Now, every single person's mindscape is unique, in both appearance and in layout. Jiraiya's for example was a library instead of a hotspring or something else that one might expect from a person of his perverseness. And Naruto's in his original timeline was a sewer, whereas here his was an archipelago of small islands that were surrounded by water the same sky blue as his eyes._

_Kushina's was, for lack of a better word, beautiful; and even then Naruto honestly had his doubts about it doing it justice. Her mindscape was the night sky, but not the one they were used to. Instead of the stars being extremely far away and twinkling like they were winking, these stars were extremely close, there were still some that were further away but now they could see stars up close. And what a sight they were, instead of being tiny, barely the size of a fingernail, these were bigger; just slightly more so than a baseball and glowing like a mini-sun._

* * *

_And everywhere he looked, Naruto could see clouds. Some were wispy and thin, others were large and had a definite and personal shape to all of them. The main difference between these and the clouds they could see back home were that unlike the white and sometimes grey clouds they saw normally, these had a variety of colours. And what a variety they had, each cloud was coloured with every colour of the rainbow but so much more vivid and with so many innumerable shades of each colour that Naruto has not sure there were words to describe the shades.#_

_Taking a closer look, Naruto realised that there were rocks floating everywhere, remembering something he read in the library, Naruto recalled the name for such rocks: Asteroids. Studying the platform they were standing on, he realised that they were in fact standing on an asteroid themselves. Snapping out of his trance at the beauty of Kushina's mindscape, Naruto focused on looking for an indicator of where exactly the Kyuubi was located. _

_Scanning the mindscape, Naruto realised something. There was in fact something that could be related to the Kyuubi; there was a single red star. Not a dull coppery red nor a brunt orange but a bright malignant red, the colour of blood; and of Kushina's eyes when she was under the influence of the Kyuubi. Not only did that make the star suspicious, the fact that it seemed to be _pulsing _confirmed that the star held something of significance to the Kyuubi._

* * *

_Tapping Kushina on the shoulder, Naruto gestured towards the star and said, "I think that's what we came here for, Kushina-chan. Now do you happen to know hhow we can get off this asteroid and over there?" Shaking her head, Kushina squinted at the star and replied, "No unfortunately, this is the first time I've been into my mindscape, sorry, Naruto-kun."_

_Giving her a reassuring smile, Naruto said, "No need to apologise, Kushina-chan. It's your first time in here just like me." Walking over to the edge of the asteroid, Naruto noticed something, there was a form of path leading out from the asteroid. The reason he never noticed until now was because the path was extremely narrow, about the length of a kunai from tip to handle, and was nearly invisible. The path itself was transparent, but had a slight white tinge to it, as if it was glowing._

_Rescanning the area for these paths, Naruto found that they wound all over the place similar to several ribbons that were haphazardly thrown on top of one another. They wound everywhere, from around the stunningly vivid clouds to the stars and even around several of the asteroids. Frowning, Naruto decided to test the stability of the path, just as he was about to make a Shadow Clone, he noticed something important; Kushina's mindscape did not allow them to use chakra._

* * *

_Meaning that if he fell off then he would not be able to use chakra to stick to the path. Apparently this was Kushina's mindscape's form of automatic defence. Before they attempted to journey into Naruto's mindscape several days prior, Inoichi had warned them that some people had an automatic defence in their mindscape. Ranging from annoyances like the wrinkled lady librarian in Jiraiya's to extreme threats like the several mini-Mandas inside Orochimaru's labyrinth mindscape._

_Naruto's was odd, his was not sentient like Jiraiya or Orochimau's. His was more so the landscape itself than a creature. When traversing the many islands, he and Kushina fund that his version of a defence was the many hazards in the sea. Whirlpools and rapids, waterspouts and storms, along with the fact that if one fell into the sea, they would get forcefully ejected from his mindscape with a terrible migraine. They had yet to test what getting sucked into a whirlpool or waterspout did but they most definitely did not want to try._

_Apparently, Kushina's defence was the paths themselves, they were constantly moving like a maze, they were transparent so it was next to impossible to predict where you would end up and to top it off, when Naruto put a foot down on the path after five seconds it started dissipating from his foot onwards meaning they had a timelimit._

* * *

_Seeing her natural defence, Kushina huffed and said, "I don't know whether to be impressed or annoyed, 'm leaning towards the latter though." Frowning, Naruto looked at Kushina, then at the paths and back again before snapping his fingers and saying, "Ne, Kushina-chan, can you use the __**Akuma Bijon**__ we found a couple of years ago?"_

_During their first attempts at training Kushina to use the Kyuubi's youkai their second year at the academy, they found that Kushina could not handle more than a miniscule amount of youkai before going berserk. Eventually, they managed to figure out that when she channelled youkai into her eyes, they changed and had red irises with slitted black pupils which they named Akuma Bijon._

_They also found out that when she used it her eyesight got sharper, she could see chakra when it was outside a person's body like when they used a jutsu and she could very nearly predict an opponent's movements. Eerily similar to a Sharingan. Strangely, they also found that Kushina also had the ability to see barriers, be it fuinjutsu or otherwise, meaning that her eyes may be able to see the writhing paths that crisscrossed her mindscape._

_Nodding, Kushina managed to instinctively call just enough youkai forth and immediately her eyes turned red. Looking around, she hummed for a second before she spoke, "I can see the paths, they're outlined in blue, but one is in red; and it leads to the red star." Smiling, Naruto replied, "If you can memorise how to get to the red star, can you run to it? I'll follow."_

_Giving him a nod and smile, Kushina decided to reply by dashing off onto the path with Naruto close behind._

* * *

_After a while of running and several close calls with the edge of the path, Naruto and Kushina found themselves standing in front of the star. Strangely, they found that when they were in proximity with a star, the path would not disappear, at least until they moved away. Staring at the malignantly pulsing star, Naruto and Kushina shared a look with one another before looking back at the star._

_"One."_

_"Two."_

_"THREE."_

_With that they touched the star._

* * *

_Suddenly, they found themselves, standing suspended, all around them was the night sky; this time it was exactly the same as normal but it had an odd yellow shade to everything. After a moment, they heard a growling. Looking in front of them, they were treated to the oddest sight. _

_An immense fox, an orange one with nine tails, was strapped to an equally immense boulder. Its limbs and tails spread-eagled over the rock with obsidian pillars piercing each of its limbs, tail and stomach. The expression on its face would have been menacing had it been mobile. At the moment it looked as if it was a petulant child throwing a temper tantrum._

_Seeing that they weren't going to speak, the fox decided to start and gave a snarl before growling out, __**"So, my esteemed jailor and her mate have decided to grace me with their presence. How can I serve you?" **__Noting the sarcastic tone, Naruto decided to play along and replied, "Well, for starters you can surrender your power and be our loyal lapdog."_

**_"IMPUDENT NINGEN! DO NOT TEST ME, I AM THE MIGHTY KYUUBI NO YOKO. STRONGEST OF THE BIJUU! QUEEN AND GUARDIAN OF THE NINTH LAYER OF MAKAI! I COULD SQUASH YOU LIKE THE MISERABLE INSECT YOU ARE!" _**_Frowning, Naruto decided another approach was in order. Just from glancing at it, he noted that the Kyuubi was in obvious discomfort and said, "How about we make a deal, eh?"_

_Its eyes narrowing in suspicion, the Kyuubi paused for a moment and seemingly truly considered the offer before replying, __**"Oh ho? You, ningen, you interest me. I sense that you have the trickster spirit of a true Kitsune yet you do not smell like one, every well, I will play along. What are the terms?"**_

* * *

_As Naruto and the Kyuubi talked, Kushina was wondering about something. When it called Naruto her mate, he showed no reaction. This had her puzzled, because if he was repulsed by the idea then she would have been able to see it. Over the years of knowing him, Kushina realised that he could never lie with a straight face, nor could he hide his emotions to her. While most people could not tell what he felt, she could read his eyes like a book. Unfortunately he was facing the Kyuubi when it spoke so she couldn't see his eyes and tell if he was repulsed or attracted to the idea._

_As it was she had hope that he felt the same way for her as she did him but she had no confirmation and ultimately decided to wait and let it play out. By this time she had missed a bit, at this point she noticed the Kyuubi looking mildly interested and partly offended. _

_Despite being slightly surprised that Naruto held his ground in front of the beast as it snarled and unleashed quite a substantial amount KI at him before replying, __**"Ningen, you better hope that you end of the deal is satisfactory enough to warrant your vixen the usage of my chakra." **_

_Smirking as his fox kit smile came into full view, Naruto shot back, "Oh it will be. I noticed your position, it can't be comfortable, so in exchange how about we change the seal so it is slightly less…movement restrictive." At that the Kyuubi's expression morphed into something akin to a smile, or a grimance, __**"Hmm, that is tempting ningen. I can already tell that you're different than others who would come in and arrogantly demand my power as if it were theirs to control. However, you have me in a bit of a…bind you see. While it is tempting and certainly worth it, I have an issue with it, I will not allow my power to be used incorrectly, nor will I allow a weakling to wield it. A sword does not make a man, or woman in this case, so how about this, you loosen the seal a little so I can gain access to the vixen's senses and memories and you have a deal." **_

_Frowning, Naruto replied, "Fine, but only if you remove the malice from your chakra and do not attempt to take over when Kushina uses your chakra." After Naruto spoke, the Kyuubi scrutinised him for a moment before giving a chuckle and said, __**"You certainly know how to drive a hard bargain, ningen. Very well, but I refuse to have a weak host. Both physically and mentally. So to seal the deal, I will blast you two with my KI for twenty minutes, if you can stand half that time, I will seal the deal with my word as a Bijuu and you must immediately redesign the seal to an environment of my choice. If you cannot then I will refuse to grant you my power and you must redesign the seal and give me access to my container's senses anyway. However, if you manage to stand the full twenty minutes and be fully conscious then I will show you both a skill of your choice from three. **_

**_However, if you can stand the twenty minutes without kneeling or taking a submissive posture of any kind then I will not only teach you the skill, I will shed some light on both of you. Deal?"_**

* * *

_Before either of them could offer a confirmation, the air was suddenly heavy with KI. So much so that even Naruto, who fought in the fourth war and was exposed to not only the KI of Tobi but also the KI of the Juubi, began to sweat. Noticing that Kushina was dangerously close to sinking into a bow and quickly slung one of her arms over his shoulders and began exuding KI in an attempt to fight off the Kyuubi's despite having only the faintest if any effect at all._

_Seconds past by agonisingly, every minute felt like a lifetime before suddenly, the overwhelming and bloodthirsty pressure ceased. Suddenly freed from the oppressive pressure, Naruto allowed his fatigue to catch up to him for a moment and fell to the floor, panting. Kushina had after a few minutes managed to recover from the shock of the immense KI before exuding her own to help Naruto and as such was sweat-soaked just like him._

_After a few minutes of catching their breath, Naruto rolled over onto all fours before standing up and facing the Kyuubi. Still panting, he said, "You…cheated." Hearing his weak accusation, the Kyuubi gave a slightly sadistic smile before saying, __**"You know me ningen, a kitsune, a trickster and master of illusions. I never once specified when I would start the twenty minutes, nor did you seek to rectify it. So, really, it wasn't my fault; besides, it was fun watching you two squirm," **__ending its statement in a toothy grin, the Kyuubi then fell silent._

_Huffing, Naruto rolled over onto his back and replied, "No matter…we won. So you have to teach us a skill…give us information…and allow Kushina access to your chakra…without taking over." Smiling, the Kyuubi gave them a rare, non-malice filled smile before chuckling and saying, __**"Fine, but you have to redesign the seal first. I cannot show you two the skills nor give you the information you so desire if I cannot even move."**_

_Shrugging, Naruto have a half-hearted fist pump before allowing his arm to drop to the floor and said, "Fair enough…I suppose…but in a few minutes…still…tired. Chuckling, the Kyuubi closed its eyes and fell silent. __**'You certainly are an interesting ningen, Namikaze Naruto, and you can change the people around you as well. I have sensed the kit's chakra mellowing out and becoming more controlled; I just didn't know why, but I do know. Let's see your potential.'**_

* * *

_Around an hour later, Naruto and Kushina sat on top of a flat rock as they listened to the Kyuubi speak. The seal had been changed from the void and large boulder look to a more natural and ancient one. Once Kushina caught her breath, she asked the Kyuubi for a design. It immediately asked for an ancient forest. Once she was done reshaping the seal, it looked…beautiful._

_The area they were previously standing in was a clearing in a forest of ancient sequoia trees. After looking around for a bit, they noticed that the landscape was full of high and jagged cliffs with waterfalls running over the side. Due to the size of the sequoia trees, they naturally blocked out a lot of sunlight, making the forest floor look like it was twilight during noon._

* * *

_Standing in front of them was a woman who looked startlingly like Kushina. She stood at around 175cm or so with crimson hair that flowed down her back to her tailbone in a single river. Speaking of her tailbone, she had nine fox tails coming out of it, the tails were a slightly rusted-looking red; the ends of the tails were black with the absolute tip being snow-white. As they stared at her each of the tails started writhing rhythmically as if they had minds of their own._

_She wore a deep sapphire-blue kimono with forest-green borders, on her left shoulder was a design of a nine-tailed fox. It was sewn with red thread the same shade as her hair, the fox's tails were designed in such a way that when she wore the kimono they wrapped around her left shoulder. The body of the fox was slanted across her chest and ended at her right breast, the body was angled in such a way that it appeared to be snarling at them with one eye._

_On her feet they noticed that she did not seem to be wearing any shoes or any manner of footwear for that matter. Her face was angular, enough so that it showed her high cheekbones, petite nose and narrow chin but had enough chubbiness to give her a slightly immature look as if she was in her mid-teens and had not fully gotten rid of her baby fat, these also gave her the appearance of a fox kit which was enhanced by her feral whisker marks and fox ears._

_The kimono fit her body like a glove so they could see that she had, as Jiraiya so aptly puts it, the body of a goddess; a toned stomach with shapely, but not overly so, hips and a generous bust that while not as large as Tsunade's was still sizable. Her curves, while not overly pronounced, were still very noticeable and the regal air she held was what one could expect from royalty. However with that air also came a calm deadliness, a subtle thing that sent chills down their spines that only someone who was extremely powerful and experienced could do; the feeling that she was regal, extremely deadly, and knew it._

_Her eyes, however, were the things that truly made her what she was. They were an indescribable shade of red, bright and vivid like blood yet powerful and deep like molten magma, the mere colour of her eyes seemed to ooze resolve, pulsate with power, and yet, held an innate softness in them; all at the same time. Her irises were an extremely dark shade of green, so much so that the only way to tell the difference between them and black was the subtle undertone of rich green, the colour that immediately comes to mind when a pine forests like those in Kaminari no Kuni are pictured._

_Just from seeing her eyes, they knew that this woman before them was unimaginably powerful, carried herself in such a way that she exuded regality yet showed no arrogance, and was extremely wise and yet still retained her kindness._

* * *

_Naruto was the first of the two to break their trance and said in a hushed and breathy tone, "Kyuubi." Immediately, her gaze snapped towards him, giving a gentle smile, she replied, "I am, ningen," her voice was gentle and melodious, with just a touch of huskiness that reminded one of intimate activities; continuing, she spoke with a noticeable glint of humour dancing in her eyes, "You know ningen, you are the first to instantly recognise me when I first showed you my human form. As if the nine tails weren't a dead giveaway." _

_ "No, it wasn't your tails, it was your eyes. They pulsate with immeasurable power and retain humanity, without succumbing to the power and turning into a mindless beast." This time it was Kushina's turn to speak, now coming out of the shock of seeing the Kyuubi in her human form and found it almost identical with what she could look like, given a few years; her body at least._

_Smiling once more, the Kyuubi motioned for them to sit on the flat rock behind them before speaking, "Now, there is a lot you must know for you two to understand me and to understand what I'm about to teach you. Firstly, yes I am a female, as opposed to what many may think the Bijuu do indeed have genders; if only in their human form, the other female Bijuu are the Nibi and the Nanabi, the others are male. Each of us Bijuu have a name, as you may have guessed by now, the name Kyuubi is simply a title. Similar to Jounin or Kage. I will not tell you two my name until you have earned it, nor will I compromise the secrecy of the other Bijuu by telling you._

* * *

_Next, each and every one of the different Bijuu are different, not only in appearance but in personality. Some are civil and reasonable while others are mindless and bloodthirsty, others like myself prefer to walk the path of neutrality, to only attack when attacked. We each also have our own quirks, for example, the Nibi is a hopeless pervert but is also kind and the most maternal. The Ichibi is the most bloodthirsty, while he is the weakest in terms of tails he is the hardest to defeat. Because of his berserker fighting style and ability to regenerate any physical damage done to him. _

_His only weakness is his container, you see while most of us can form a perfect merge with our host, the Ichibi cannot. When he transforms the upper body of his container is always exposed and is asleep, to defeat him all you must to is wake his container. The rest of us can only be subdued by draining our chakra or by sealing us as most have done. The Hachibi is extremely skilled in close combat with his immense strength and multiple appendages. The Rokubi's skin is poisonous and can corrode even the other Bijuu, so long range combat is the safest, and ironically he is almost totally helpless in close combat and is weak to physical attacks._

_ The Nanabi prefers long range combat by distancing itself with the use of its six wings. However once it is forced onto the ground it cannot attack except with our ultimate attack, unfortunately the skin of the Nanabi is as hard as diamond and cannot be penetrated. Only blunt trauma or attacks that damage internally may harm her. As for the rest of us we fight like our regular animal counterparts would, with the usage of chakra of course. The reason I'm telling you two is because while I looked through Kushina's memories I was informed of the second war you are currently fighting, so I thought it would be prudent for me to give you two a 'crash course' on the Bijuu so to speak since it is highly likely that the other Jinchurriki will be called to arms. _

_And so that brings me to the next topic, the abilities we Bijuu grant our hosts, for good and bad. The Ichibi container is granted complete control over sand and can use it for anything their imagination con conjure, unfortunately they also suffer from inherent insomnia due to the nature of the Ichibi._

* * *

_The Nibi grants its container an extremely powerful fire affinity and the ability to converse with and raise the fallen. A side effect a container from birth will face is slanted cat-like eyes. Similar to the rings around the eyes of the Ichibi container. The container will also have feline-like grace._

_A container for the Sanbi is given a strong affinity for water, along with that ability to turn parts of their body into the Sanbi's shell with practice. As I understand the Nidaime Hokage could condense the water in the air and so did not need a water source to use his jutsu, the Sanbi container is like that but still requires water but no handseals or jutsu are required._

_The Yonbi allows its host access to its array of Yoton jutsu, including something called the Yoton no Yoroi, I have yet to see it in action but if the name is to be believed then the use is self-explanatory. _

_A Gobi container gains extreme physical strength as well as access to steam-based jutsu. Hosts of the Gobi are more likely to directly charge their opponents at high speeds and use their strength to overwhelm their opponents, they also can use their steam techniques at close range and catch their target by surprise._

_The container for the Rokubi gain the ability to coat their bodies in acid but have no other abilities. _

_The Nanabi host can sprout wings from their back without using their tailed beast shroud. These wings give them enhanced manoeuvrability as well as the ability of flight. Hosts of the Nanabi also gain the skill to give parts of their body a hardened exoskeleton as well as control over insects as an Aburame would have, as such most carry an artificial hive of some sort on their person._

_The container for the Hachibi gain extreme dexterity and flexibility as if their limbs were the tentacles of an octopus. They can also call forth tentacles from themselves to act as an extra limb or as armour to take a hit, they can also use the tentacles as decoys of themselves and they difference cannot be detected. With skill the host can also spew ink from their mouths._

* * *

_Now for me. I grant my container almost instant regeneration as well as sharpened senses hence why you have the beginnings of a sensor kunoichi, Kushina. I also naturally boost the main affinity of my containers to inhuman levels, there are also several hidden abilities you have, your __**Akuma Bijon **__being an example. _

_Now that that's done, I can move on to what I'll teach you two. You must answer my question, if I were to give you two a style of fighting, what would you do with it? Attack, defend or evade, choose one." With that the Kyuubi closed her eyes and sat down on the grass to wait for their answer. Frowning, Naruto decided to go with what he normally did in battle and answered first, "Evade and counter." Kushina found her answer and replied, "Attack with extreme speed."_

_Nodding, the Kyuubi opened her eyes and gave a small smile before saying, "I thought as much, you see I have the ability to check what animal a human is most attuned with, and normally their fighting style reflects it. You Kushina, you are most attuned to the Tiger. An aggressive and highly offensive style, meant to be used with extreme speed and reflexes as well as a considerable amount of strength, there are no straight kata in this style. Simply attack at high speed and do what comes naturally to you. As such I will be training you and honing your strength, speed and reflexes for this style, I also recommend weights._

* * *

_Naruto, you are most attuned with the Panther, while it requires strength just as the Tiger does it also requires flexibility and subtlety. The panther style of fighting revolves around either redirecting an opponent's blow or avoiding it completely and counter attacking with ferocity, you will also require inhuman speed to strike your opponent whenever they show even the smallest window."_

_Giving them a sadistic grin, the Kyuubi stood up before stalking off into the forest, "Come, we will train for two hours each day in the mindscape. While you do so, you gain muscle memory and skills but no physical changes, hence why you will still need to train outside of here. I have heard of gravity seals, I recommend placing them onto yourselves as they will not only increase your speed but your chakra capacity and hone your reflexes. Kushina, the best weapon for you would be a katana, nodachi or two ninjato. Naruto I recommend duel-wielding either two ninjato or two tanto, it's up to you depending on how you fight. Tanto are better for extremely agile strikes but do less damage while ninjato have more damage but they also are slower. Both can be overcome, channelling Wind natured chakra into the tanto will increase not only their cutting power but their range as well while ninjato can be made lighter with seals or simply putting weights on your arms. Or there's always the brutal way with bashing your opponent's skull in with a mace…oh I know! Using tretch knives…or maybe…"_

_Seatdropping, the two Gennin followed the Kyuubi deeper into the forest._

* * *

_====================Flashback End==========================_

Frowning some more, Naruto was growing frustrated with himself. Apparently the reason he could not seem to learn kenjutsu properly was because he hadn't found the correct blade, he could use boken easily but boken were useless in actual combat and any real tanto he tried he didn't seem to be able to use them properly. Yes he could fight with them but he was told that a true swordsman fights with his sword as an extension of his body, something he could not yet achieve.

Giving a resigned huff, he got up to continue with their mission.

* * *

**A/N: Done! Finally, god damn! This chapter gave me the worst headache, not even A Maths can do that. The mindscape scenes gave me the most trouble, but I'm proud of my description for the Kyuubi. Before anyone asks, the difference between the Fox Kyuubi and the Human Kyuubi is that A: she had pikes lodged in her body which would serve to piss her off. B: For me, the different forms of the Bijuu show different sides of their personality, while in their Bijuu state they are more feral and prideful. **

**One a side note, I managed to find a translation for Demonic Vision which became Akuma Bijon. I'm not sure if that is the correct one, if anyone knows then I would be extremely grateful.**

**#: Neji's outfit in the beginning of Shippudden**

***: Think, the galaxy. The clouds are nebula. **

**Also, their animal representations I made really to show their personalities, it has nothing to do with Summons, not yet at least. **


End file.
